A shinobi is a high school student like an other
by alexiel-neesan
Summary: Urban AU in modern days Konoha, POV, violence, language, slash. My name is Hatake Kakashi. My life is already a bit complicated, but now you'll have to add troubles rising in Konoha's underground and Major Bad Stuff coming over the horizon ABANDONNED
1. Chapter 1

**A shinobi is a high school student like another**

_This is the English version, not the exact translation, of my French fanfic "Un shinobi est un lycéen comme les autres". The updates will follow the ones in French ( as in 'kind of irregular' )._

_**General warning: Alternative Universe, POV, language, violence, heterosexual and homosexual pairings, mention of drugs and alcohol.** The school is mostly inspired by my high school which is a French one, so it may be confusing to understand, moreover I've used a lot of slang in the French version, words that don't exist in English. That said, I will answer to every question you'll decide to ask me to facilitate the reading._

_One more thing : I'm French and I'm my own beta. I learn English for eight years now ( with the help of Internet ) so I still got many tense and grammar errors, as well as strange sentences construction. Tell me where and why and I will do my best to enhance the level of my writing. ( I think my title isn't right too.)_

_The characters of Naruto belong to M. Kishimoto._

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I yawned widely, behind the collar of my sweat-shirt, hidden from the sight of this sadist of a teacher. He didn't even notice, keeping on with his lesson, the class humming softly in background noise.

I rubbed my eyes, yawing once again. Last night hadn't been overbooked and it was only my third hour of class, not normal to be sleepy at past ten in the morning… Blame those stupid guy's lessons… I hate this teacher. What would I gave for a book way more thrilling that those ones we go to study… However, I'm sure this guy could make any book become boring to no end. May someone end our suffering!

I cast a glance around the class to evade the neurons disappearance due to ultimate boredom; you can really cross strange people in this high school.

Like this guy – Zabuza something, don't ask me his name, it has only been a week since school started and I've never paid attention to anything else than my name when calling the roll. This guy is impossible to miss in the hall, I could swear it's a human seized mammoth... Or a mammoth seized human… He must have grown to growth hormones… otherwise, he seems okay.

In the okay guys, there's Asuma, seated near the door, playing nervously with his pen – beware of the nicotine junkie. He's seeing Kurenai I-don't-know-her-name. I usually hang around them since last year; they never ask too many questions.

Ho, the teacher asked something, waiting someone to answer… And who literally jumped from his chair to answer ? The one and only Gai Maito. We and Konoha are lucky there's only one; if there would have had more than one, we would have been charged to eliminate them.

In response, the class smirked, snorted, whispered – minus your servant. Not that I like to attract attention, no, I attract attention enough without meaning to do it – do you know many eighteen-years-old Asiatic guys with silver-grey hair ?- and you'll never heard the sound of my voice in school unless you're asking for a direct and very quick answer. Most people tend to think I'm some asocial or drug addict case; like this same 'most people' think Gai is a nutcase.

The 'most people' here is Itachi Uchiha and his clique. Here's the main reason to why I shut up and take a snooze instead of gossiping and adding my two cents to the rumor.

Itachi… I can't stand this guy since he entered high school. He doesn't go anywhere without his court glued to his heels – we're lucky there is just one of his faithful to put up with in the class… Well, 'lucky'… this guy's skin is _blue_! And he has a grin which would make a shark proud, impressive enough to make you yell "JAWS!".

The rest which filled the room, was parts of furniture, fangirls in clusters glued to the king's heels or normal people trying not to attract attention. Or not normal people but who tried not to attract attention too.

If you're into statistics, I'd rather like to be put in this last category.

I've at heart to notify that the rest of the day will be ( have been, is ) of the same content. Damned boring.

Roll on the end of the classes. Then I'm finally gonna train. Maybe even with sensei if the evening is quiet.

I caught myself hoping that all the night will be quiet.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I hate public transports.

But when you live all the way of the other side of Konoha, it's kinda useful.

Okay, I could go as fast jumping from roof to roof, but it wouldn't be that discreet. The people who, randomly, would catch a glimpse of me, would begin to ask questions.

If there's one thing between all we want to avoid, it's civilians beginning to pry into our business.

They don't need to know that a part of Konoha's money came from rather secret sources, nor that what keep Konoha and its countryside clear of troubles, it's the work from the people behind the scene, neither that streets wars remain under covert of darkness because of the rules played when night falls.

They don't need to know that they sleep quietly during night and live without troubles in the day because of the two sides of Konoha ; and we are one of those sides.

In brief, Konoha got cops… but also ninjas.

Yeah, Konoha, unlike many other villages, didn't rejected and killed his past of ninja stronghold. I'm the living proof of that.

High school student during the day, shinobi member of the ANBU in Konoha's service during the night.

Yeah, that's me, the guy sitting close to the exit with a book, the guy with his silver-grey hair in the mug, the guy you don't see the half of his face.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

When I got back home, as usual, the house is as empty as when I left.

It shouldn't surprise me more than that, it's been ten years this hole is empty.

Even before, my father was never here when I get back.

But I still got this strange pang inside when I push the front door, just as if I was waiting for someone to appear, just as if this silence in which I can hear the echo of the creaking door shouldn't exist. Just as if I remembered what it was like to be greeted home, and that everyday this almost memory kept coming back right in my face. In the form of a picture.

I shook my head. Maybe I should get a pet; a dog or something…

The house is always in the same state. Despairingly tidy for 'nothing to put in the way' reason. It's hard to believe that a single guy lives here. There's few personal belongings outside my room. This place could as well be one of those houses furnished but uninhabited, one of those exhibition houses which have never been used.

Fuck to what I'm supposed to do for tomorrow.

Tonight, the walls were too close, the ceiling was too low, the silence deafening – and the pang inside decided to become a ache.

Without going in the kitchen although I was ravenous, I got out of here once my bag threw on the couch in the living – direction the HQ.

I could always grab something from the canteen over there.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOooOoOoOoOoOoOo End First Part OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

_First part of five ( for now) done in French._

_Well… if you liked it… if you hated it… let me know it ? ( Anonymous reviews accepted )_


	2. Chapter 2

**A shinobi is a high school student like an other**

_Chronicles from a 'not your average student' live._

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

One day, the walls in the training and lockers part of the HQ must had been done in the same tones as the rest of the building.

White walls, white tiles and green doors.

Colors that reminds a bit too much of the hospital wing. I don't like more than that to be reminded of the hospital when I go nothing to do there. The job makes us have to visit this wing a lot more than we would visit it.

It's maybe for this reason that not a centimeter of wall is devoid of marks. The walls are covered with small drawings, names of people dead in mission, graffiti supposed be our masks, pictures of teams, or of the few kids some of us have.

I've even seen sutras – in front of the exit door of the second training room. The whole wall is covered by.

Sandaime has never said anything about this habit, just like the formers bosses. I think one of the masks drawn in the North corridor was done by him. Well, that what sensei told me.

So it didn't surprised me any more than this this evening, when I've seen a guy writing something next to the main ANBU men lockers door.

He was dressed just like anyone in here, with dark clothes – only the guys who were going on missions bothered with the uniform – mask pulled on the hair and was writing. Just under a photography. Then he slowly touched the picture, like a farewell.

I recognized this move. My hand reached almost unconsciously my left eye, hidden under the gray hair. I've had already done it too many times – I had too many people to remember.

A team hadn't made it today. _'Les risques du métier'._

He slowly parted from the wall, stretching myself, then the light fall directly on him. That, that was unusual.

I knew some of us had jobs, mainly to keep an ear on every kind of information. I had already wondered if some other were in the same situation as me ; shinobi at night, and student in the day.

Here was the answer.

In the HQ corridor was no other than Mini-mammoth-in-the-school-corridors-Zabuza, classmate – and apparently ninja too.

He made a move of head in my direction before going on his side, I nodded back and I was on my way to find my sensei.

After having swallowed the news.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

A few days after this 'discovery', at the end of the classes, as I was going on my way to take the city bus, I fell nearly nose to nose with the one an d unique guy who couldn't stop from chewing his favorite weapon, even in the middle of a fight – I could testify – one of the few guys beside me I knew leaded a double life, one of the guys I trusted with my life – at least in a fight - , a member of my rarely used team. I call Genma Shiranui. Or Shiranui Genma. _Peu __importe_.

He was calmly parked in the student car park, and was waiting without being obvious, sitting on the bonnet of his car.

"Genma? Whatcha doing here ?"My eyebrow must had reached the middle of my forehead.

"Nice to see you too!" He waved cheerfully. I looked at him some more. He ended by sighing.

"Rah, you're really impossible… I'm socializing Kakashi, I'm socializing. Climb in." He followed his own demand, accompanying it with a hand gesture.

" I got to warn you : your definition of socializing differ slightly from mine, as I've seen the last time you've said so to Raidou and Sensei. I'm not in the mood to drink today."

" 'Kashii, loose a bit! Oh, isn't Momochi in your class?"

Momochi, as in "Momochi Zabuza there's-an-other-nin-in your-school-oups-we-forgot-to-tell-you". No kidding, that's what sensei only managed to told me when I asked about the guy. Even me can come out with better excuses.

" … Why?" I asked him, on my guard, when I seated myself in the dead's seat.

At the same time, the big guy crossed the road before the car park toward the bus stops, and Genma got out of the car, waving in the same manner as before.

"Momochi!"

Zabuza lifted a non-existent eyebrow, then get carefully closer from the car.

"Shiranui. Hatake."

"Get in! We're gonna socialize!"

The second eyebrow met the first. I translated, looking like 'I don't give a damn' behind my hair and the lowered window.

"He means we're gonna get drunk enough to roll under the table."

"No, but really 'Kashi! Among teammates and colleagues, we got to know each other a little more better!"

On this, my expression joined Zabuza's one ( _Teammates ? What's going on there?_ ), but before being able to make a single move, he had already been forcefully dragged by a Genma decidedly on high spirits today.

As the battered car which was staying in one piece by hopes and prayers – and the incredible stubbornness of his owner, at least in my opinion – was leaving the car park and was jolty going toward streets invaded by the five o'clock rush, an interrogation made its way.

" And if we're called?" made the students in chorus. I glanced at Zabuza, who glanced back.

"Geez, relax guys! We're not gonna be called since Yondaime gave us his blessings, he said that was a great idea…"

" _Attend_…Yondaime? Blessings?"

" You're stingy in civilian Kakashi! You didn't know everybody called your sensei 'Yondaime'? He's running for the title… and, yeah, blessings 'cause we've got a fourth member in our tiny semi-official team, YOUHOU! WELCOME!" Genma addressed to Zabuza a big wave in the rear-view mirror before going on. " And then we're going to celebrate that…"

"With your socialization thing."

"Exactly."

Zabuza, in the back, was watching the scene. Then he shook his head. Me too. I think I would have been grateful to have been informed about that before Genma decided to take the matter in his hands. Sensei, we gotta talk.

"Okay, I stop wondering why you're called 'The Infernal Team'…"

"… 'The Infernal Team'!"

" Yeap," answered cheerfully Genma as my eyebrows threatened to rejoin my hair. "That's us! I suppose you've already meet Raidou?"

"Not that hard… He must be the saner of the two…" I muttered against the wind coming in by the lowered window.

"I'm not deaf Hatake!"

"Oh? That's a _première_!"

Glaring contest.

"Must be the first time I hear you talk so much Hatake."

I half-twisted in my seat, the eyebrow of my visible eye lifted as much as possible.

" You're not going to begin that you too…"

Genma made a sound half way between a laugh and a cough.

" This is all very well, but got any bar preferences Momochi? Not point in asking that to Kakashi, he never get his head out of the HQ beside for his classes…"

"Hey!"

"You're not gonna tell me I'm lying?"

Zabuza's face was clearly telling : 'In the names of all the kami that still listen, were in the hell have I landed ?" Then he shrugged it off, taking things as they were coming.

"The 'Akuma'?"

Genma ceased momentarily to chew the senbon he had taken from the glove compartment when starting his car to look at Zabuza by the rear view mirror.

" You're sure about that?"

"… There's a problem with this bar?"

"… no, no… I'm just afraid for my ribs…"

Genma's fears were justified. As soon as he stepped in the bar/restaurant/night club/ anything you wanted, a woman as tall as him flung her arms round him, hugging him tightly enough to cut his breathing.

"My Genma! Why didn't you came sooner! You know perfectly I hate when you're unfaithful to me!"

I laughed. Real hard. To myself.

Apparently Genma was as much a regular of the place as Zabuza… not that a difficult task to achieve, Genma was a regular customer of every bar in Konoha. I'm not counting the ones in the closer towns. The woman loosed a bit her bear-like hug, winked at Zabuza and glanced in my direction. Enough said.

"Sit down my littles, sit down!"

She gestured toward a table on the side, and letting us just enough time to sit, she asked our orders.

"Alcohol free," I said.

"Same," said Zabuza.

"I can't believe it! I though I've learned you how to drink 'Kashi! And Momochi, you can't possibly pretend you don't know how to drink!"

"Precisely."

Genma stared at us, left speechless by our double answer. Then, slowy, very slowy, he began to pray under his breathe.

"Lords please, not a second Hatake please…"

I lifted a corner of lips in what could pass for a smirk. For what the other would be able to see between the light and my collar…

"I believe Sensei know what he's doing huh? Hey, Momochi, welcome in the insane ward."

Zabuza was smirking too.

"Hm, not sure I should say 'thanks'…"

Genma was looking from one another just like I would had been dumped in his own personal hell, with a rather stupid expression plastered on his face… He had even forget to chew his metal stick.

At some point, the scary woman had left, saying our order would came quickly.

The 'our order will come quickly' summarized itself with a quickly put down tray and a choking hug made on Momochi Zabuza by one meter sixty on heels, forty-five kilos, Chinese style dress and black hair in a bun.

"Zabi! You could have warned me you would pass by!"

"Sorry, it wasn't planned…"

"No need to be sorry, now that I got you early, I'm not going to let you go!"

"May I breath?"

Genma was looking the display with a lifted eyebrow. Me, I stopped wondering why Zabuza asked for this bar among the others. The… girl seated herself next to him, nearly on his lap. Genma found back his voice.

"Hey, care to do the introduction 'Zabi'?"

The death glare sent his way promised that if this particular name ever came out again of his throat, Genma integrality would suffer. Physical and male, the integrality.

"Haku, Hatake Kakashi and Shiranui Genma. Hatake, Shiranui, Haku."

"Nice to meet you miss."

I hid a laugh in my glass. This corner of the room maybe wasn't all that lighted and Haku was indeed sexy, but I couldn't believe Genma would fall head first in the trap.

Zabuza and Haku weren't bothering to hid their laughter.

"Bah? What did I say?"

"Genma, not only you're deaf, but you're blind too. I begin to wonder what you're doing still in the job…"

"Hey don't begin with that kid!"

Haku managed to gulp back some air, and lifting an artistically painted nail said:

"There's one thing to put right: I'm not a girl."

Genma's face was just too fun to pass. I couldn't hold back a snicker. He gulped down his drink and sat it back loudly.

"This was so not a good idea…"

"What? The socialization thing? Wait 'til I tell Raidou about…"

"It'll fall straight in the Gossip Vine…"

Zabuza and I exchanged machiavellian looks. Genma fell head on the table. We crossed the table to do a high five while laughing.

"First test: passed. You managed to overkill Genma on first try."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Zabuza was really a great guy, once you knew him.

Good fighter, amazing strength but discretion guaranteed. The kind of guy to trust to have your back when on the job, undetectable even with his mammoth-size whenever he wanted to.

We didn't ask him what had happened for him to come in our squad, and he didn't ask why there was a free place in the team.

A quiet guy.

It was strange at the beginning. I wasn't used anymore to be able to trust someone else than Genma, Raidou, Sensei and my own face. I was getting used to solo missions.

We 'socialized'. Genma-like and traditional-like too. We had to be able to follow class still, without headache or other inappropriate stuff happening.

If we weren't friends, at least we could talk to each other. As much as guys talk.

I saw Haku more often too. He liked me apparently. He forced me to stay for dinner sometimes at their place – they were living together in an apartment in town.

I learned a bit more about them too. By coincidence, they were both coming from Kiri, and left it without their families. Most of the time, they were already six feet under. Because of the diverse local troubles and the fact they were both from known old ninja families.

Zabuza entered Konoha's ninja five years after me, and Haku was working undercover in the 'Akuma' for the Information department.

I think we end up being friends after all.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO End Part 2 OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

_I hope the French parts won't be too much troubles… You just have to ask, and I will answer my best!_

_Previously written in French and unbeated since all my friends who knows what I write are French girls worst than me in English._

_Reviews?_


	3. Chapter 3

**A shinobi is a high school student like an other**

_'My life isn't that interesting… all in all, a teenage shinobi is a high school student like an other… just maybe with more potentially lethal troubles.' ( Alternative Universe, Urban, POV, yaoi/slash to come, language)_

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

It was shortly after Zabuza got placed under my mental 'friend' tag that I got confronted with a living mystery.

The night has been infernal. Unusual; generally villains are just like snakes, they calm down with the cold.

_Perdu_, you lose.

Far beyond the outskirts of the city, in a quiet part of the forest, we stumbled upon a nest. Unfortunately, it was a very crowded nest. How easily an "info and recovery" mission morphed into a shoot-'im-up, using well-know characters for targets.

I had used all of my chakra on the field to the point of near exhaustion, and Zabuza hadn't sheathed his weapon once in four hours.

Genma, Raidou and the other team--for those who hadn't had to pass by the infirmary square and had not put in an appearance in class--were still at the 'sleep' square.

Because of all this, Zabuza and I were looking like death warmed over this morning – and I was looking more than any other day like a drug addict, as Uchiha and co. oh-so-kindly reminded me as soon as I stepped into school. There was one other person looking like death warmed over as well.

You're gonna laugh, but I never seen or noticed this guy before, during the two plus months of class. It couldn't possibly be a new student; teachers would have been all over him. I wondered how I managed to never notice him – either I really sucked at registering my environment since the beginning of this grade, or this guy was worth a closer look.

He had quite long brown hair falling in his face, skin more tanned than mine – not that hard - , and a scar crossing his face from cheek to cheek. Thus the hair in the face I suppose.

And he had the look of someone who had spent the night outside. Yet another ninja-boy in the class?

The first teacher of the day lectured us when all three of us showed up late for his class; lips pursed, saying that "you should work instead of spending your nights out, evidently if you want to learn to make something of your life in the future -yada yada yada- the headmaster -yada yada yada- your parents will be informed of this-…more yada yada yada"

I kill for a living. Zabuza kills too. All we'll do of our future, is carry on what we are already doing; 'cause it's the only thing we know how to do.

But…I had troubles picturing myself explaining that to the teacher.

At least one good thing came out of his boring lecture: the family name of mystery-guy, Umino.

At the end of this class, I undertook to try get to know a bit more about the zombie. As the people were leaving the room in a proper chaos, I moved closer from Zabuza.

"You had noticed Umino before?"

"Zombie number 3? Nope."

Zabuza on the same wavelength as me. It only made me more curious to find out who this guy was.

I followed Umino to our next class, without being too noticeable through the colorfully dressed students that were roaming the corridors. He sat against the wall next to the door without thinking it over and closed his eyes. He didn't open them when I planted myself not too far from him.

"You look like death warmed over, man. Didn't see you at the party though…"

I felt Zabuza glaring a hole in my back. Bet he was wondering what stupid idea had suddenly sprouted in the thick head of his teammate. Umino opened one eye; looked me from head to toe before closing it again.

"Wasn't at the party. A problem with that?"

Wow, quite aggressive. Things to hide?

"Just curious, sorry."

He didn't add anything, just waited for the teacher to come and open the room. I was waiting too, back against the wall, watching him from behind one of my ever present books.

If I had a tad bit more chakra, I could have tried to see if he had more chakra than the average person; but the little sleep I managed to catch hadn't allowed me to rebuild my reserves. That and I had no wish to have to go to the infirmary; I would have passed out because of chakra depletion. This would send me straight to the HQ's infirmary, and oh kami that woman was frightening…

I had no more chances to know more about this guy this day. Even with all my attention - diverted from the classes, not that it was a huge change from the usual – I found myself unable to spot him again. I wondered if he hadn't just vanished.

When I told Zabuza, he pointed that it was next to impossible to find someone in the halls, beside Uchiha and co. You, too, I would have added; but I refrained from saying it out loud.

He was right. I could always discreetly cast a glance in the school's files one of these days.

I mentally created a little form in my head titled 'Umino'.

Oh, and it was the weekend now, why would I use my neurons when there was no need to? I had just to hope that nothing would come up between tonight and Sunday night. Just catch some sleep and chakra. Just that…

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

You'll find me hoping for a miracle again in the week. Hoping for one at the end of the week especially. It's just peachy to take the crappy assignment and seeing it explode in your face. Or lower.

All that to say that Sunday, I got up (early) around noon-one o'clock, awake enough to make an appearance at the HQ.

Once there, what did I see? The guy in charge of mission dispatching came to me and said "Hatake, you're okay? A mission just came up and you're the only one qualified to do it that's around."

I say "'Kay, lemme see that." _Goddamn mornin' decisions_.

He gave me the mission. Assassination. Quick, discreet and all that. To end before midnight tonight. I love ultimatums, it's incredible how it's motivating – this come from the guy who hates fixed timetables.

What did I do? My mission of course; found the guy where it was said he would be, at the assigned hour, with the people reported – no place for improvisation, timing fixed to the millimeter, 'I'm the perfect weapon', bam-bam. _En avant la musique. _On with the show.

The guy moved away from the crowd, came closer to my position. When he passed me, I shadowed him until we went, alone, into an adjacent street rarely used – even less at this time – badly lighted and all.

_Cliiichééééé_. And inevitably, it happens to me.

So inevitably, the thing you're not expecting at all happens. In the middle of my mission.

The man decided to go all 'Highlander' on me. Japanese version. Short, sharp and very well wielded his version.

Personally, I had nothing against his movie, but I had a schedule to keep. I gave him the end without stepping up to Highlander II and III.

Did I mention his version was particularly well wielded? Well enough to leave me a souvenir. Just a scratch compared to what I managed to get in the past, but a nasty scratch for a Sunday night mission.

So now it was Monday, and being essentially myself I didn't go see Scary Woman last night, preferring the silence of my house to fix me properly – that after having mentioned 'mission done' on a scrap of paper. This explains why I was standing--like an ass--in my bathroom, trying to warp myself with gauze to prevent the cut –superficial but red, not serious but RED- from rubbing too much against my pants, from bleeding, and above all from sending me to the high school infirmary.

I had trouble picturing me explaining that – or at least trying to – to the school nurse, without adding the other various marks and scars considered to be rather unusual on the body of a 'no trouble' teenager.

And it was hurting like hell.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

_Putain de bordel de merde…_

This crap was really hurting like hell.

I was even beginning to wonder why I fucking took the trouble to come to school today.

Ah, yeah, Scary Woman. The HQ, and especially sensei and our head medic had the tendency to be very careful… No day of school missing without some excellent reasons. Well, they were right – you try to keep your shinobi from vanishing into thin air – but today I would have done a better job of staying in my bed. And that without having to go see Scary Woman our dear medic.

Zabuza strengthened this idea as soon as he saw my head.

"Hatake, what have you played at again?"

"Super weekend… got to the movies…"

"Say that to someone else! Did you take a look at your face?"

A this particular moment ringed the proverbial saving bell. Rather the kind of fire alarm that acted as a bell. To the classes, oh joy.

Double French Monday morning.

I rather like French usually, it's one of the only class I'm listening to with both ears. It allows me, among other things, to extend my insults repertoire.

But today, it just wasn't my day. I wasn't taking enough attention to the teacher's shrieking to understand them, without forgetting to add that they were, before all, boring my eardrums.

I noticed that the class' humming ceased just when the shrieking came suddenly much more dangerously closer.

"_Avez-vous entendu ce que je vous ai demandé deux fois déjà Hatake _… "

My only answer had been to look up. Wrong answer.

" _Mon di_… Do you want to go to the infirmary Hatake?"

Not that wrong since she came back to an easier understandable language. I guessed I was scaring to look at.

"No… but could I out ?"

"Of course, who go with him?"

Oh no. No-one, it was okay, I wasn't going to end sprawled on the floor. Though the teacher seemed to think otherwise. I didn't wait to see who she wanted to dump on me to go towards the nearest toilets. Every moment of rest was a good moment.

When I stepped in the airports-toilets – super big, super lighted, super mirrors – I noticed first who had been promoted sick nurse : Umino among all. Great, maybe I'll manage to learn a bit more about the guy.

Then I noticed the living-dead.

White like death, with circles under the eyes reaching the middles of the cheeks and too red lips. Who let the make-up in the kid's reach? Ha ha.

_Putain_. No wonder the teacher freaked out. I was frightening.

I would have glanced under my shirt, but with Umino there who was watching me strangely, it wasn't looking like one of the best idea I could came with.

_Merde_.

I turned the tap on. The water was iced. This was enough to tell me how I was. How stupid was I, seriously. Not even able to patch himself properly. The weapon hadn't even be poisoned!

Scary Woman was going to enjoy herself. Wasn't going to be a bone left for my grave.

"Hatake, you're okay?" asked Umino, frowning.

Aa. Not for very long though. But I wasn't going to answer that, he seemed enough ill-at-ease already.

"Don't worry, need more than that to get rid of me…."

"You sure you don't want to go to the infirmary? You look…"

"…like death. Or hell. Pick one," I quietly ended.

Umino looked shaken. I pretended not to see it, head lowered on the sink.

"Could you get me the lessons?" I asked out of the blue.

Umino watched me funny, apparently still a bit shaken.

"I'm going home," I explained.

"O…Okay, no prob'."

I returned to the class, Umino on my heels, just to take back my bag and tell the teacher I was leaving.

Fuck, but I felt ill.

But I noticed from the corner of my eye, as I was leaving the class unnoticed by most – beside Itachi who was mumbling something along the lines of "Bad trip Hatake or withdrawal symptoms?" – and I was modeling a tiny amount of chakra to block pain, that Umino suddenly grimaced and hold his hand to his temple.

This got registered on its own in my 'Umino' form.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo End Third Part OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

_Chapter beta-ed by Awyr. Thank you!_

_Just a little note: in the French version, Kakashi don't have double French class, but English ones. 'French' fitted here better._

_Drawings related to this fic soon on my Lj/homepage._

_I know there's people reading this fic… please review? At least to tell me why you haven't reviewed?_


	4. Chapter 4

**A shinobi is a high school student like an other… part four.**

_I don't own Naruto. Otherwise there would be more blood, more angst, more supernatural stuff and more Kakashi-mental-torture. _

_Bit of a dentist-warning for the last part. _

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I took my sweet little time to go from the high school to the HQ infirmary, even taking a 'long-cut' by the Information wing. Just to see if there were new gossips floating in the air.

I wasn't disappointed.

"…but I'm hungry!"

"Go eat somewhere else!"

This was followed by a whole concert of various noises, sounding very much like those produced by the eventful meeting of a soft body and harder objects, ending majestically by the powerful 'VLAM' of a door opened by non-conventional means. A dark UFO came in front of me by said suddenly opened door before ending his course against the opposite wall.

"Hi Kodia," I said, when the crashed UFO get cataloged under the 'Flying Human' type.

"Ghh hi Hatake."

And here's Kodia. I'll spare you his family name, I've never been able to pronounce it – my Russian need some work. He's a tracker beyond compare, thanks to his particular…particularities. So particular that he's kinda forced to stay at the HQ; it would be too dangerous for him as for his close circle – and not so close one – that he lives 'outside'.

"You got thrown out again?"

" 'm hungry…"

Kodia tried the well named puppy eyes no jutsu, still collapsed against the wall. Tried is the key word; his iris made almost red by the hunger were a bit spoiling the effect.

"Sorry man, I'm not enough of a philanthropist to let you suck my blood."

He pouted while standing up, smelling the air.

"For lack of something else… It's not like I would like some, seems rotten. You smells like fever."

Yeah, Kodia is what you would call a vampire; more exactly a human coming from a bloodline, a clan, a family – call that as you wish -, that, from mutation to mutation, feed from blood and have the needed senses coming with. For example, he can follow your tracks just by smelling your blood. Thus the tracker post. Nin-dogs or ninja having trained dogs aren't widespread since three or more generations.

"Thank, 'would have never know without you…"

Seeing my death warmed over face and guessing where I was going – without the need to be a medium -, he made one of his psychotic smiles.

"I'll go put some incense on your grave."

"So kind of you."

He went back from where he came; this made me rise an eyebrow.

"You're going back?"

"What? It's only the third time she's throwing me out…"

He disappeared by the door. It seems I've forgot to mention that not only he was hungry, but that he's also head over heel with one girl of the Information.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

I continued my path, trying to make myself the more humanly-possible discreet. If only I could manage to come across Shizune instead of Scary Woman at the hospital wing; Shizune had the huge advantage of _not_ trying to kill you before healing. Not to mention that she was younger. And nicer. And that she knew every single gossip running in Konoha.

I think I mentioned something about miracles earlier. 'Cause this was exactly what I was asking for; a miracle.

So, when I bumped into someone without seeing or feeling this someone arrive, I knew exactly who it was. But what have I done to deserve such a karma?

"Hatake…"

"Yeah Grand'ma?"

She struck me with The cuff of Doom™, her trademark. This blow could be compared to the one which made Kodia meet a wall. At the difference that she used, as usual, just one finger.

"What have you get yourself into this time brat!"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

I finally ended with most of my pieces in place, sitting on one of the beds of the infirmary. Tsunade was in front of me, working her magic hands on my stomach and the bad gash on. Soon the red swollen skin was no more.

"There, it should be fine… Don't lemme catch you at healing yourself on your own when I'm there for that."

She straightened, staring right at me. She ended up by getting me ill at ease by staring at me like that, as the only clothes I still got on were my jeans and my shoes, and as the infirmary made it a point of honor to be the coldest place in the HQ in this season.

She looked me up and down, noting every wound's trace, every scar, her gaze lingering on my a bit too showing ribs to finally ending by staring my left eye hidden behind my silver hair.

"You eat properly at least Kakashi?"

This is the main reason for why I try by best to avoid Tsunade aka Scary Woman; more than because of The Cuff and the yelling. The 'discussion' - more the argument…- always end to come back to this point, implying all the rest. I half-smiled to her, a smile well visible for once because I had no collar or bandana behind which I could hide.

"Don't worry about that grandma, it's fine."

She knows as well as me that it will never be totally okay, even less fine. It's just a way as an other to put a polite end to the conversation.

"Would you stop with the 'grandma'? He begins to call me like that too, and I'm young enough that I could have been your mother, brat."

The intercom ringed. Tsunade went answer it.

"Thanks the gods it hadn't been the case…" I mumbled while putting my sweater back.

Tsunade, at the intercom, by way of answering me – extraordinarily mature – stock out her tongue at me. Then she hung up and came back toward me.

"I give you the day off, just go by Yondaime's office on your way out."

"Does everybody _but_ me know about this nickname?" I asked the ceiling, while picking my bag up from the floor.

Tsunade let out a laugh, and reached a hand to tousle my hair. I've been barely aware of my reaction that I had already intercept her wrist. Time froze. I stared at my hand for what seemed to me an eternity. Then I let go off her wrist, turning my head away so as not to look at her.

"Sorry Tsunade."

I felt more than I saw her smiling sadly at me before I left the room.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

I'm paranoid. That's a fact. In my line of work, if you don't learn very quickly to become so, at best you're behind a desk, at worst you're pushing up the daisies. When there was enough pieces of you left to be buried.

So, when I saw my sensei's smile from behind the rubbish dump he dared to call a desk, I mentally reviewed the list of the exits.

"Kakashi, since Tsunade gave you the day off, could you do me a service?"

From his tone of voice and his face, it was rather 'HELP!'. Sensei needs to take this tone of voice just for one thing. It was my turn to try the puppy eyes no jutsu.

"Please sensei, not that, don't make me babysit…"

The end of my sentence was cut by a very, very enthusiastic "Kakashi!" howled by a black and orange meter who jumped on me. This had been brought in by an exhausted looking Shizune.

"Look after Naruto for the day for me?" tried – pathetically – sensei before my desperate glare.

"Isn't he supposed to be in school?" I asked, more rhetorically than not. The 'he' was currently announcing his undying love to my pant leg. Shizune had already left. Rat.

"On strike" answered laconically sensei.

"They all deserve to be chidori-ed up their asses," I mumbled hoping it to be discreet. Don't get me wrong, I love the kid, but every person because of whom I have to baby-sit Naruto is a foe. Sensei seemed to mumble something that sounded a lot like 'Amen'.

"Please?" added my sensei, clasping his hands and smiling more and more desperately.

I sighed deeply before talking to the six-years-old blond kid who was trying to go through my pant's pockets.

"What do you want for lunch Naruto?"

"RAMEN!" Naruto bawled in response.

"Then leave my leg alone, we need to get some shopping done."

Sensei sank in his armchair, hidden behind the masses of paper on his desk.

"Thanks Kakashi."

"Yeah, yeah," then I mouthed 'you're so dead for this', slipping a finger on my throat.

He just smiled and ruffled his as-blond-as-his-son's hair, while said son was dragging me out singing 'ramen' on every single key.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Konoha became a pretty cosmopolite place for a few decades, you can hear nearly every language spoken on the planet here, you can cross representatives of every country, resident as just tourist. More people imply more troubles for us, but tourism is a great way to get some money coming in Konoha's coffers. You couldn't believe the number of people reading to spent an eye just to see for real the carved Hokages' faces, witnesses of Konoha old days of power; or a leg in the numerous festivals taking place all around the year. Most of those festivals have been created out of nothing.

One of those festivals have to be the cause why the streets were packed to this point. There was no way Konoha had that many inhabitants. The take-out ramen restaurant to which I was an usual customer was totally packed – the boss made my order just because he knew Naruto and me since we were big enough to eat his ramen. The crowd wasn't very convenient to keep an eye on the orange-clothed thing that was going everywhere without leaving a second to catch back my breath, forcing me to run after him with our lunches in my arms.

Sensei said once that running after Naruto was the best training exercise he knew. His dear wife knocked him on the head at this moment. He said that when his kid was only three years old. Naruto had trained since. Now, I just had to wish that I had had a good idea – said idea was to make the kid walk and run 'til home, in order to have him tired enough after lunch so that he'd behave like a six-years-old, and not like a solar battery on legs.

He's rather like a chakra battery. I can swear this kid is a descendant worthy of the Uzumaki line. He's boosted by energy and chakra. I could close my eyes and still be on his trail, just like a lighthouse's light.

This wouldn't be the greatest of my ideas. There would be too much undetectable people between him and me.

The crowd began to disperse as we moved away from the main shopping and pedestrian streets. The 'Akuma' was just a block away, maybe Haku would feel like babysitting just the time to let me breathe? I turned down the idea as soon as it came to my mind. I not wish to end with Zabuza on my back 'cause the kid would have exhausted his boyfriend – I had no death wish.

"Naruto!" I yelled at a crossing. "Where are you going? It's this way!"

The orange jacket turned round, coming back to me from the wrong street he had began to take, the marks on his cheeks thinned by his smile.

"Kakashi, I'm hungry!"

"Yeah, well it's this way," I pointed with a chin move.

The "I'm hungry" echoed to an other heard earlier on the same tone. A drop of cold sweat slide on back. A little Naruto with red eyes and pointed teeth appeared in my mind. Please, don't dump another potential vampire on us. Said potential demon slipped quietly his hand in my free one, waiting for the traffic light to pass to green for the pedestrians.

The same demon, once appeased by generous offerings of food ; you got to understand my part in addition to his there ; settled on the couch where I was already reading, beating me up until I catch him by the neck and put him on my stomach, where he rolled himself in a ball like some little animal – just before falling into Morpheus' arms. I couldn't help myself but to pass a hand in his hair; in case he would purr. He didn't purr, no, he made something which went straight to my heart. He talked in his sleep. He said 'Kashi-nii-san'.

Kakashi-big brother.

They're my family.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo End Fourth Part OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

_Kodia came from 'Night Watch/Nochnoi Dozor', great Russian movie with a lot of vampires and cool supernatural stuff in urban environment. Thanks to Awyr! Great and amazingly fast beta job!_


	5. Chapter 5

**A shinobi is a high school student like another** Beta by Awyr, thanks again for your great job 

_The daily life of your not-average high school student._

_Some explanations: Kakashi, Zabuza, Kurenai, Asuma, Itachi and the people in the same class are in the last year of high school ( must be the equivalent of a 12th grade in the US. Here in France we call it the 'terminale' 'cause it's THE crucial year; we got a big exam at the end that says if we can go to the schools or universities we choose. ). So they are all around 18. Haku is 18 too, but he isn't in school 'cause he works already._

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The hand came fast, too fast to be avoided. A tiny move, just a call for chakra, and the blow would be deflected – hardly. And the sinisterly crackling hand, instead of encasing itself through the skull, hits the mask; stops, rebounds with a spurt of blood following.

The pain; unbearable, unendurable to the point that no scream comes out. Sight flickers, becomes black on the edges – a void calling. The hand that hit took the eye.

What follows is blurred, too fast to be understandable, too fuzzy. Stained with blood, interrupted with faceless corpses, with gun shots, with screams of death and alarm.

The squealing of tires.

The shout.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

_Putain de bordel de merde._ Alarms clocks be blessed.

I woke up with a start, sitting very straight, covered in a cold sweat, a clenched hand on my face.

At least this time, I didn't have to see his face. And have to complete the awakening, by screaming before the dashing-madly-to-puke-my-guts-out-into-the-toilet-that-never-asked-for-anything.

I put shaking hands to my face, before silencing the screaming clock with a fist and falling back flat on my back on the battle-field bed.

I caught my breath slowly, calming down the erratic pounding of my heart.

I was appreciating the fact I wasn't having this -- this what? This nightmare, this dream, this reminiscence, this memory…? -- as often as at the beginning… I would have gone insane. Not that I'm not already, we'll talk again of the insanity level of a guy who spends his free-time killing people since he was big enough to walk; but that's another problem.

I was thinking about it enough already, I didn't need to feel it anew every night… to live it again… It was coming back to haunt me often though, when someone talked about it, when something made me think about it in 'a bit too insistent' way. Yesterday's conversation with Tsunade was definitely labeled under the last category.

The ache in the left side of my face eased away. Even if I knew this was just phantom pain, the memory of a pain, it hurt like hell. I know of better ways to wake up.

I turned my head on the side, just enough to decipher the numbers on my alarm clock. I had ten minutes left to catch my ride two streets away from here.

This day looked promising.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

By an inexplicable stroke of luck, I managed to catch my bus in time--fully clothed and still munching on some left-over bread--and, while I was at it, I also managed to made it to the high school on time for once.

Umino cast me a glance from behind his hair, and without saying anything, handing me a folder covered in a sharp, black handwriting before the first hour of class rang; it was the summary of the classes and work I've missed.

A nod exchanged with Zabuza as a salute, a scornful 'tsk' from Itachi when he saw me ; without any doubt, he would have wished for me to disappear from his landscape. A lazy lump of a teacher and zou, there we go again for the thrilling life of student Kakashi.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

At the ten o'clock break, Asuma (cancer stick in place and flanked by red-eyed Kurenai) came toward us to where we crashed, almost sheltered from the cold; we being Momochi with some homework he forgot to do and me with a book (another one).

"Hey guys, Anko's throwing a party at her place Friday night, you in?"

"Anko?" I lifted my head up from my book. " As in Anko ' I'm driving a convertible and living in a manor' Mitarashi?"

I stopped there in Anko's description. The rest, at least the rest known by your servant, was classified.

"Herself," confirmed Kurenai. "So, you're coming?"

Zabuza moved -- like mountain should move – before speaking up.

"You know who's going already?"

"You can count on the majority of the school and a good part of the campus – at least the local guys. Anko's parties are always very popular."

"Maa, seems enough already… I'll go I think," I answered, going back to my reading.

Asuma and Kurenai left, surely to count the people they knew would go. Once they where out of ear shot, the real discussion began.

"Yondaime's gonna jump with joy."

"Yep", I agreed.

It was true. It was not everyday that we could get, without any problems, into the house of one of the families we knew had a lot of very close connections with the Konoha's underworld. And we would try not to get caught red-handed at it.

The bell rang, calling us all back to class; the smokers, the nerds, the clusters of too-scantily-clothed-for-the-season girls, the guys with skull caps glued on their heads, the ones with a hat instead of a cap, the couples – just hetero ones -, in brief, all the high school wildlife. Zabuza got up, making his spine crack.

"I'm rusting. You on for a sparring match tonight?"

"I'm your man," I deadpanned, sliding in the crowded corridors to accede to our next class.

"Haku would kill me," he answered back in the same tone. Private joke.

"Would he come Friday?"

Zabuza shrugged.

"Depends on the present fauna. I'll see tonight what Yondaime will say about all that."

And we were in again for more uninteresting and boring hours.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Yondaime really did jump for joy. Even if he was a bit suspicious. We could hardly blame him for that. We also learned from him that Anko's parents weren't in town… so Friday, between two dances, we would be allowed to slip away discreetly; eavesdrop a bit, go through rooms and papers --to make a long story short, to do our work and come back with the maximum of information.

We were okay with that. Hey, picture that: a bit of spying in music, lots of people hardly in state to notice anything so we don't have to conceal our business, and drinks and fun for free.

Yep, it was more than fine by our standards.

Sensei assigned Haku to this mission too, saying that some things would maybe be easier to tell to a girl. Zabuza only snorted hearing that. Personally I had trouble keeping a smile off my face – but, as we were in the HQ, my face was safely hidden behind my mask.

After the 'friendly spar' that evening with Zabuza, and the agreement that we would need a fifth match to decide which one of us was the best in hand-to-hand combat, I was feeling much better than I was that morning. Even if the memory, fresh again, had followed me all day long.

The prospect of the party Friday night helped to lift a substantial part of my gloomy mood too.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

The following night, from Tuesday to Wednesday, I made the nightmare again.

Unfortunately for me, the alarm didn't scream at the right time.

I arrived at the school an hour late, the consequence of not having been able to dress and catch my ride in the five minutes of respite my guts left me – or rather, my absence of said guts. They had been drained away in the toilets, swept away in the process of sobs and silent screaming, leaving me hollow, as if I was on the outside of my body.

I paid even less attention than usual to what happened during the day; it pushed Zabuza to ask me what was wrong with me and if I was feeling up for Friday. I can't recall what I told him… certainly not the truth about the first part, that's for sure.

As soon as the final drill rang, I was out. Direction: the only place where I had the right to be under the weather.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

In the seedy districts of Konoha ('cause, yeah, dear Konoha has some, and, yeah, she doesn't give a damn about it) there's a place where you can be at peace, have a warm meal and a roof over your head for the night. And where, for any kind of information, you'll be paid.

The three-stories-high building doesn't have a name, only a grey façade, flaking more with each year that pass. People come in and out all day long, without it attracting any questions. For the most part these people, the building, the dormitories and the food are paid by private funds (which deserve beatification, along with the staff, and the boss-lady is already a saint).

What most people ignore, is that the building is paid by the money from by our operations, that most of the staff constitutes of retired/active members of our ranks and that the patron saint has been one of my teammates until… close to three years now. This isn't enough to cancel the fact that this place is useful and needed by Konoha and that Rin is a saint.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

I entered the building without anyone taking exceptional notice of me, and I walked in until the place I knew Rin would be at this time of the day; the kitchen-canteen-like that took most of half of the first-floor. The floor was mostly deserted, save for two people on the chairs of the entrance hall and the receptionist who waved at me from behind her desk; the chairs in the canteen were still up on the tables. Rin called the late afternoon the 'slack hour', and took advantage of the quiet to begin making the meals for the evening by herself.

She was leaning on the worktops when I found her, her neatly cut hair hiding her face. She didn't move when I stepped into the room, but I knew she knew I was there, having heard or felt me. I could never, even with ten more years of training, surprise her like that.

I stopped an arms length from her, and she lifted her head from her task.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey," she answered, with one of her gentle and warm smiles that always consoled and warmed me up.

She crossed the space separating us, hugging me; and I hugged her back. She moved back just enough to see my face.

"You don't look so well Kakashi."

" 'Got troubles sleeping."

What's great with her, it's that with the minimum of words, Rin understands all the mechanisms at work behind my silver-grey locks. She gave me a knife and an apron, and I took the place next to her; peeling, cutting, letting my hands take the controls while Rin, at the same time she was surveying her cooking, was relating me details of every single thing that happened since the last time I saw her.

She knew the best way to make me think about something else (rather than about my bad nights), was to keep me busy – she had to know, after all, we picked each other up when we fell …. And it was always towards her that I turned when I was under the weather or when I needed a bit of human warmth.

Don't you dare believe we raise our spirits in bed. Rin is just like my sister, sometimes she's even the closest thing of a mother I ever have. After Tsunade, she was the first woman I met that I let close to my life. And in return for that, I'm a mix between the annoying little bro and the best friend to her.

When I left, after I shared the meal I helped to prepare with the forgotten inhabitants of Konoha, Rin walked me to the door like every time I came, kissed me on both cheek and didn't forget to whisper in my ear "If you need anything, my window is always unlocked".

How could I forget?… I stopped keeping count of the number of nights I ended up in her small apartment on the third story, when the missions were leaving me hollow and my mind torn in pieces.

If this night, the nightmare came back again, tomorrow night I'm sleeping at her place.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO End fifth part OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

_Next chapter : Party time! Thanks for the kind word of encouragement, leave me your mail if you want me to answer you back!_


	6. Chapter 6

**A shinobi is a high school student like an other - 6**

_Beta by Hgirl69, thanks thanks thanks._

_Party time! So more warning for this one… **Warning**: **mention (and not just mentions) of drug and alcohol, drug and alcohol use, sexual situation** … must have forget some._

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

I had the 'nightmare' for the third night in a row, every night from Tuesday to Thursday. Why couldn't I pass a night without having it, the answer to that question was beyond my abilities. I may be a genius, but I'm not God. What is for sure is that in addition to genius, I'm a total moron doubly so by being a masochist.

It's the only adjective I can find to qualify a guy who, instead of going to Rin's place where he'll be able to sleep peacefully as he promised himself, sleeps at his place to undergo a brutally interrupted night for the fourth time.

Friday morning, the fourth night – or rather the fourth morning in a row, I woke up ready to puke my guts out, only to run to try and catch a bus that didn't give a damn if I was late to my stop or not. Crappy day.

I caught up on some sleep in classes, even though I knew I could do without it until evening – it didn't raise any question from the teachers… heh, that was the good side of being a genius. From the students, on the other hand, it drew some "whispered" comments that I could have done without, thank you, as well as some sidelong glances which could have used some work on the discretion part… I noticed that Umino glanced more than once toward me during the day. I noticed that I _still_ hadn't paid attention to his first name.

Zabuza kept sending me worried glances too. I told him exactly what I thought about him doing so, without even trying to be nice, when he asked me, for the third time in as many days, if I would be up for tonight.

In the end it was decided that they would pick me up at my place around nine. This way, we hoped that most people wouldn't be in a state anymore to notice three more people coming and getting lost in the Mitarashis' residence.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

I was waiting, sitting in front of my door at well past nine, when Zabuza and Haku finally decided to show up. A cold breeze had risen with the sunset three to four hours earlier, and the sweat-shirt I had decided to wear wasn't exactly enough to protect me from the chill..

My street looked… well, deserted. There already weren't a lot of people around in the daytime. Now that it was evening, the houses had their shutters closed; the cars were back in their garages, the lamp posts were standing at attention. The light from Downtown couldn't be seen from here, and the sounds from the traffic couldn't be heard from here either.

A winded chug-chug crossed the silent night. I got up, refraining from snorting before the sound announcing a well-known machine. A car with an indefinable color under the orange public light appeared at the beginning of the street, passed the sleeping houses and finally stopped in front of me. A less-than-happy Zabuza was behind the wheel, Haku was saluting me with a big smile from the passenger seat.

I opened the door, sliding in the back seat of the blissfully warmed vehicle, grinning. I should stop doing so one day, it's absolutely useless, no-one ever saw more than a quarter of my face and my mouth isn't in that quarter.

"Tell me, how much did Genma have to pay you for you to take his piece of junk?"

Zabuza started the car again, leaving the sleeping part of the city to take the main streets, before answering me half-grumbling.

"You're peachier than this morning… Raidou didn't let me borrow his car, said he needed it."

"I thought you had a car though?"

Haku entered the discussion at this point, while digging into the backpack.

"Yeah, it's mine actually, and she's in need of repair… some idiotic guy who wasn't able to see the light was red… Here," he said, turning toward me and holding a thing looking like an earpiece. "Two-way transmitter, these three here are tuned to be linked only between them."

The car was leaving Konoha behind to enter one of the more upper-class residential districts. The areas we drove past were growing bigger and bigger, and the houses in were becoming larger and more stately and guarded.

"What's the mission plan?" asked Zabuza between glances from the brightly lighted road to a scrap of paper covered with what looked like my sensei's hand scribbling.

I digested his question for a few seconds – as the senior active here; I had the command. "The main objective is finding as much information as possible; so the main targets are the office or offices, and every other place susceptible of hiding dirty information, bedrooms, library… you know where to look."

The two ninja under my command simply nodded.

"Then… keep an ear out for anything that may be said, we never know. And keep an eye open for video cameras, guards, that kind of stuff – Old man Mitarashi is paranoid; we never know what he may have put in his corridors. I suggest we plan to call it a night at 0030 for now, which may be adaptable based on the circumstances."

The two ninja nodded once more, and we adjusted our watches, making sure that everyone has his phone too – there was no such thing as being too cautious.

Zabuza turned and turned again in the large streets lined by massive residences half-plunged in darkness, before pulling out between the two pillars of an opened portal – I noticed the guy sitting in a sort of box on the side, who watched us entering without seeing us.

The… manor, in lack of a better term, was located at the other side of the path; or was it a drive? Anyway, said path was covered by cars, not all in the best of shapes, many improved-looking, even illegally improved just by seeing the coachwork, each sporting a Konoha registration.

Zabuza parked a few meters away from the wide open portal, as a safety measure, and also because it was the last free place to park. We all three got out of Genma's car. Beginning of the mission: 2158. I wouldn't have thought Anko lived so far away from downtown Konoha.

Zabuza stretched out and sneaked an arm around a shivering Haku. Your servant contented himself by crossing his arms. As we were walking toward the house's entrance, I was attentively studying the place; and I knew the couple which was walking a bit ahead of me was doing likewise.

No dogs, no guards beside the bored one at the portal, video camera just at the portal too for now. Nothing insurmountable.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

About five meters from the door, worthy of a cathedral, the sound assaulted us. More than sound, it was rather the very very low basses, to the point to be felt rather than heard, of the music which was obviously blasting inside.

"Well," I said, "I'm gonna try to find Asuma and Kurenai. Let's go."

Haku's eyes were shining as much as his earrings when we crossed the last meters to the door, and opened it. Ouch. The expression "sound barrier" had just become real. Haku stepped in immediately, apparently delighted, dragging behind him Zabuza. Each one headed in his direction –each one knew what he had to do. I concerned myself no more for the time being with my teammates; Haku in a party was just like a fish was in water, it was his element.

I closed the door behind me. The music seemed to saturate the air; it took me a few seconds to get use to the volume.

There were people everywhere, mostly young; at a rough guess, everyone here was between 16 and 25. There were couples in the stairs, in the entrance, with bottles, without, with cancer sticks, with dance partners, yelling, dancing, smoking, kissing.

I walked toward where the source of the music sounded likely to be, crossing what must be in normal times a huge living room, now a crowed place. What seemed to be the whole Konoha high school and campus population was gathered here, bumping one into the other in what could pass for a trance.

We arrived just at the right time. Most people here were already well on their way down the 'get plastered' path, and what was going on around them held little interest . Or if they had any interest, by tomorrow they would have forgotten what happened.

There was a girl dancing on a table, wearing only a tiny swimsuit. Except for the fact that the outdoor temperature wasn't exactly lending itself to wearing a bikini, the view was kinda nice. There were guys looking so smashed that they had to be standing up by the intervention of the Holy Spirit. The air stank of sweat, alcohol, tobacco and cannabis – there was certainly more things to smell, like the hookahs in a corner or the mostly empty bottles littering the floor, between the moving bodies.

The source of the music was a real sound system installed on the other side to the room – the music, after my eardrums had adapted to it, sounded like a jazz tune produced under LSD, crossed with a possessed electric guitar and Thor him self's hammer. Good mix.

I spotted Asuma and Kurenai in a corner, and I headed toward them before they got a chance to spot me.

"Kakashi!" said Kurenai when she noticed me, twenty centimeters from her. Tipsy was too generous to qualify her, but it was still too early in the evening to use downright drunk. She was 'merry'. Asuma was globally in the same state, even if it was less visible.

"Zabuza's here too?" The music was forcing her to scream in my ear. I yelled in answer.

"Yeah, we just arrived."

"Drank yet?"

As I showed that, no, I haven't drank yet, Kurenai forced a glass with an unidentifiable content into my hands; I couldn't do anything else other than accept. I drank some, a crowd movement spilling the rest onto my clothes. Now, if someone was caching me where I wasn't supposed to be, I could always play the part of the smashed guy; my clothes stank enough of alcohol for me to be credible.

I left the couple a few minutes after that, leaving the room where it seemed that all persons present in the 'castle' had gathered.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

I was wrong. There were people everywhere. And when I say everywhere, I really meant everywhere.

First bathroom with a door wide open: couple.

Kitchen: drinking contest with participants ready to roll under the table. Those who were cheering them on weren't in a better state.

The stairs were half converted into a sleeping place, the other half a place to sit and chat. I carefully slalomed between the clusters of people trying to chat above the music; but the music was still to loud to hear each other if one wasn't screaming.

Second floor's corridors were deserted; not the rooms. I caught glimpse, well without trying to, of savant plays of legs. I tried to explore the whole floor, finding neither video cameras nor rooms susceptible to contain what we were looking for. From what I could hear in the earpiece, one of the other two was still on the first floor – the music I could hear was as loud as in the room, when the music was muffled where I was.

I wandered around the whole floor, and was ready to go for the next one as I went back to my starting point, the mezzanine above the front door, when a well-known figure passed the door.

Itachi.

You would have thought he was stepping directly out from a yakuza movie, if not from the real yakuza. Black suit, black tie, white shirt, shoes shining as much as his hair. The almost-blue skinned guy from my class going to welcoming him to the door did nothing to lift the impression. You would have thought he was greeting the Godfather himself.

I glanced to my watch. 2303.

Surprisingly, Itachi didn't head toward the music, but began to climb the stairs, followed by his faithful companion. I hid, flatting myself against a wall. A girl with dyed hair, --violet couldn't be their natural color—appeared and flung her arms around Itachi. I could perfectly hear them from where I was.

"Itachi," she purred, "I was beginning to think you wouldn't come… What delayed you?"

"One of my stupid cousins decided to die three years ago today… My family absolutely wanted to celebrate the event properly. They disgust me."

"Oh… what was the name of the cousin that made you late?"

The trio was climbing to the third floor, and their voices were beginning to move away. I nearly failed to hear the answer he gave to the girl.

"…Obito."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

My mind went blank.

I couldn't think of anything. Everything was blank, totally empty, hollow. There was just a big void, a big nothingness that was filling me from the inside.

I think I slipped against the wall, since I found myself sitting on the floor, my back against the wall.

My hands were shaking. It's with a trembling hand that I activated the transmitter.

"Go on without me. I'll be outside."

My voice sounded alien to me.

I hadn't heard if there had been answers. I must have passed the stairs, then the rooms on autopilot, to end outside on a terrace a few meters away from the front door.

There was nothing on my mind. It was just a big blank void. I wasn't feeling anything.

The taste of bile in the back of my throat brought me back to reality. I leaned with a hand, against the wall, holding this body I wasn't controlling anymore. All I've eaten during the day, not enough anyway, ended its course on the flagged ground of the terrace.

Just one thought made its appearance, turning and turning again in my mind, pirouetting, yelling at the top of its voice between my skull's bones.

… I forgot him I forgot him I forgot him I forgot him I FORGOT HIM I forgot him I forgot him iforgotiforgot I forgot him…

Guilt. The warm liquid sliding on my cheeks was that, my guilt made tears, the very guilt which was eating me alive.

I don't know how long it lasted. Too long. Not enough. Just a second. An eternity.

I wiped away my tears with a corner of my sleeve, and I walked away from my mess. No-one was on the porch, so I sat there.

A brown bottle, with a beer label on, appeared in front of my eyes. I sat up straight, cursing myself for letting me be surprised – being surprised was just like signing my death warrant… the training fought to take back control, to put my feelings back in their box; _his_ memory swept everything away. He had insisted so much for me to act at least like a normal kid, for lack of being one…

The owner of the hand holding out the bottle spoke up, interpreting my silence as an interrogation of the content of the bottle.

"It's just water. I wasn't going to give you alcohol after puking."

I took the bottle with still trembling hands, and drank a bit, just enough to rinse my mouth. The water had a bitter after-taste of brown beer.

The other sat next to me on the steps, another bottle in hand. It was Umino.

I spat the mouthful of water on the ground, and took another one before speaking.

"…thanks." It still wasn't sounding like my voice, but if Umino noticed that, he didn't say anything.

He sniffed the air, wrinkling a bit his nose doing so.

"Didn't you drink?"

It wasn't really a question. Only my sweat-shirt stank of alcohol, and he was close enough to me to notice it. I answered anyway, swallowing another mouthful of liquid. "Not enough."

"Me neither," he said, and he throw his head back trying to drink the whole content of his bottle. It was already empty. "Fuck."

A too loud, too shrill, too close, voice resounded. Umino tried to get invisible by shrinking himself. I closed my eyes under the sonorous insult.

" 'Ruka-aa! My little dolphin where are you? I-RU-KA-A?" Some insults and choice words followed, about outdoor temperature and dolphins in general, before we heard the slamming of a door. Umino sighed.

"Thanks almighty she's as blind as a bat without her glasses…"

"It's Iruka your name…"

The glare he shot me was dark…"One joke about my name, just one…"… and the tone was definitely threatening.

"Hey, mine is Kakashi, you think it's better?"

Iruka shrugged a half shoulder. He had to have drunk a few beers to be so carefree looking; unless he hated high school and was doing his best to pass unnoticed there, much like a certain someone.

I closed my eyes again. I was totally… I didn't know. I wasn't myself, that was for sure. I wasn't at all. Even if I knew my appearance to an outsider's eye was rigorously the same as usual.

"Fuck," was muttering Iruka for himself, "too cold." His breath was creating little clouds of white vapor.

I realized I was creating clouds too. Temperature had severely dropped while I was waiting for Haku and Zabuza to pick me up.

"You're not going in again?"

"I'd rather avoid it… I'm not really into leeches…" He was apparently referring to the girl from earlier. "I'd happily got back home, but the guys I came with are totally wasted. Morons…"

He crossed his arms in a weak attempt at warming himself up, more clouds coming out with every breath he took. His cheeks were becoming red from the cold, not anymore from the excitement as at the beginning. He must have danced. There were still stray sweat drops on his forehead, and his tee-shirt seemed damp in some places.

"Here." I held my jacket out to him. He looked at me without understanding. "Slip that on before you freeze. You'll give it back to me Monday."

The red on his cheeks seemed to increase, was it the effect of the cold? He took the jacket and slid it on though.

"Thanks."

I glanced at my watch. 0001.

A noise of steps came from behind us.

"Kakashi?"

It was Haku. I raised a hand to show I had heard him. He stepped closer, crouched, his skirt exposing a tiny part of skin between the material and his boots. "You're okay?"

I smiled, putting the usual mask on my face. "Don't worry, I'm fine."

He smiled back, even if it was obvious he wasn't really convinced. He noticed Iruka, who was watching us on the side.

"Hey, hi, I'm Haku."

"Iruka," he nodded.

Another noise of steps came, but heavier ones. Zabuza.

"It's beginning to get bad inside – we may as well get away from here before the cops decide to show up."

I nodded while standing up, and then I turned toward Iruka, still sitting, still with my jacket on.

"Need a ride?"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

The return trip was rather pleasant. Iruka and Haku had claimed the back seats, and were making small talk about everything. It was soothing.

I spoke up only once, to ask to Iruka where he wanted to be dropped. He gave the name of a street half-way to Haku and Zabuza's place, but totally on the other side of mine.

Zabuza raised an eyebrow in my direction then frowned when I told him I would drop here too. But he didn't say anything.

I should have wanted to know if they had found anything. I should have wanted to know what was going on inside for Zabuza to ask for retreat. All that was somewhere outside me. The refrain of "I forgot him" was digging a hole in my head.

Streets were mostly desert at this time. Zabuza stopped at the street's corner indicated, where Iruka and me got off. I waited for Iruka to move a bit away from the car, enough for him not to hear and see what I was giving back to Zabuza – namely the transmitter.

"Don't wait for me to give your report guys."

Zabuza nodded, not asking anything. Haku looked at me with a concerned look. Then Zabuza rolled up the window, and they left the street in a backfire of dying engine in the silent streets.

Iruka was going through all his pockets behind me, before brandishing a pen triumphantly.

"Give me your address," he told me, "I'll bring back your jacket tomorrow."

I slowly nodded. "165 Ookami lane."

"Isn't that behind the old temple and the park?"

I nodded again. I watched him trying to write on his arm in the little light coming from the old lampposts. He pocketed back the pen, and smiled at me. I caught myself smiling in response.

"So…See you tomorrow."

"Yeah, see you tomorrow."

Then he left.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

From where Zabuza had dropped us to the anonymous building, it was a short ninja step.

Rin hadn't rolled down the shutters of her window. A blue light of screen was coming from it. I climbed up the wall, stopping at the level of her place.

She was sitting on her bed, her head on her knees drawn to her chest; the TV in front was playing a too bright western. It was a spaghetti western. It had been his favorite movies. Rin and I had never stopped to make fun of him about that.

I pushed the window open, and she turned her head. Her eyes were red.

I put my feet on the floor. I didn't dare to take my eyes off her, and at the same time everything was becoming blurry in front of me.

"Rin…"

I sniffed, taking a step toward the bed, stopping.

"I had _forgotten_ him…"

My voice broke on the last word. Rin didn't say anything; she just opened her arms to me.

She rocked me for a long time, while I was crying like a child, like the child I had never been. I was crying out my guilt from having forgot, crying over the friend, the brother I had lost. She rocked herself, silently crying the man she had loved.

OoOoOoOoOoO End sixth part OoOoOoOoOoOoO

_So thanks again to Hgirl69 for betaing this ( Sorry Awyr, the last time I've had news of you was when you told me you had receive the mail with the 6th part.) I think this is officially the first Kakashi high school fic ever. Yay me. All mistakes remaining are mines._


	7. Chapter 7

**A shinobi is a high school student like an other**

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

It was warm; agreeably warm, as if someone had just left the space where I was. There was some light too. And there were voices a bit away, familiar voices. One was a woman's voice, the other belonged to a man. I was still half-sleeping, not aware enough to understand what they were saying. Anyway, there weren't any hints of immediate danger.

I opened my eyes.

This was Rin's apartment. I was in Rin's bed, in the space she must have just left. The night came back to my mind and I closed my eyes. Oh fuck.

The smells reaching me made me crinkle my nose in distaste … until I realized those smells were coming from me. I stank of alcohol, I still had my impregnated sweat-shirt on; I could smell the odor of stale vomit too, on my collar, in my mouth, almost strong enough to give me nausea again. A brave hand showed me that I had hair stuck to my cheeks – and that it was stuck by something tasting like salt…

I felt like shit. There was no other word to describe how I was feeling.

I lifted myself up, and sat on the bed. The voices stopped. They were coming from the tiny kitchen. I got up, and crossed the few meters that were separating me from it. I leaned against the piece of wall separating the two rooms.

"Do you want something to eat or drink, Kakashi?" Rin turned herself away from the food she was preparing to look at me. The food looked like a heavy home-style breakfast, with eggs, bacon, toasts and fruits. The smell of the sizzling bacon in the pan was sickening to me. I shook my head and slid into the free chair, sitting across the third person present in the room.

There were hands wrapped around a steaming mug. I recognized it as one Obito had given to Rin. It had two big bloodshot eyes drawn above the inscription "Party Animal". Rin had laughed, and suggested that Obito should give the same mug to Genma. He hadn't had the time to do so.

I kept my eyes on those hands. I hadn't the need to cross the eyes of their owner, I already knew. Worry, concern, desire to help. Here was what I would find if I lifted my eyes up. As much as Obito had been rather the rude big brother who liked troubles figure, the kind of guy your mommy hates you to hang around with but with who you always find yourself hanging with anyway, the owner of the hands was more the level-headed big brother figure; almost a father figure. Not that I needed one more.

Namiashi Raidou.

A hand lifted the mug up. The silence was settling, the only noises being the ones Rin was making by dressing her plate and cleaning. Another hand drew me out of my zoning-out. A hand that was placing a glass of water in front of me.

"You can use my bathroom you know…"

I lifted my head to look at Rin, her hand still around the glass. I shook my head, swallowing my saliva; my saliva which tasted like bile…

"Thanks… I should get back to my place…"

"I'm bringing you back," said Raidou. I started to refuse, but he spoke again. "Sensei's orders. He also specified that your report could wait till tomorrow. The rest of the team already reported."

I slowly nodded. Rin's hand had left the glass for my shoulder; it was a warm, familiar and reassuring presence.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Raidou was driving in silence. Kami be blessed, his car was in a much better state than Genma's . The heater was adding its purring to the engine's.

The streets were speeding behind the window, under the grey sky threatening to rain; the snow wasn't on the schedule for now. The old streets flanked by building for the most part still built in wood seemed to be more ancient under this morning light, ancient, empty and sleeping.

The silence thickened.

I spoke up for the first time since we left Rin's place. I had just answered by gestures the question she had asked – 'you're not cold?' 'Do you want a jacket?' and above all the one she hadn't ask: 'Daijobu?'- 'Are you okay?'. I had slipped back into my old habits, the ones of before Obito, my face so neutral it was blank, my emotions and feelings sorted, cataloged, locked, refused to access to expression. Not that I had so many feelings right now.

I was feeling like I was a mere shell, hollow. The self-disgust was eating me from the inside.

"Park here."

Raidou frowned but didn't say anything, parking the car in the free space before the large portal closing the park behind, a park that seemed to be uniformly grey. I got out of the car without a glance behind me. Raidou wouldn't follow me.

We were here on the border of the ancient Konoha, the Konoha of the ninja times. The surroundings walls had since long disappeared, but this place had subsisted as it was from the beginning. What man, during the wars between villages, as evil or stupid had he been, would have had the guts to disturb the dead?

The graveyard's gate was open. Very few people were still coming here. It was the old graveyard, the one where the ashes of the older clans were still traditionally buried; when those clans were still existing, or when they hadn't left the country. The remains of my father were resting here, alongside my mother's, and the remains of my father's parents before him. My remains, if remains there would be, would rest here too.

The wind rose, playing with my hair and sweatshirt. I supposed it was cold. I wasn't feeling.

I walked between the dense rows of grey steles; some were so ancient that the kanji carved on them weren't readable anymore because of the effects of time.

A whole corner of this place belonged to the Uchiha clan. I joined it with a few more steps.

There were still flowers and half consumed incense sticks next to one of the newer stele. Obito's stele.

"Hi old pal."

How stupid was I, seriously? What was the point in talking to a grave? That was truly an excellent question.

I stayed maybe a quarter of an hour in front of the stone. Then I turned on my heels and headed back toward Raidou and the warm car. The wind had ended up making me feel the cold; and had ended up making me realize I was crying again. I had finally put a name on what I was feeling. I thought I had betrayed Obito's memory by forgetting the day of his death, even if my subconscious had not forgot, hence the nightmares. No, I couldn't betray Obito that easily… everything I do referred in one point or another to him, everything I feel, everything I decide. He was staring at me straight in the eyes each time I looked at myself in a mirror. Without him, I would still be no more than a tool, a puppet with a brain.

So I headed back toward the car, a bit more at peace with myself, at least on the rational side. His death would still need a lot of time to scar in my heart.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Raidou didn't look at me when I climbed back in the car, and he started the engine again without a word, leaving the old town and the graveyard behind us toward the house. There was a bit more traffic as we moved.

Ookami lane was barely more lively than when I had left it, somewhere near twelve hours earlier. This Saturday morning was looking like Sunday arrived early. Raidou stopped next to the mail box bearing the number 165.

"Do you need anything while I'm here?"

I shook my head as I undid the seatbelt.

I suppose you know the picture, the one where a guy got an idea or got everything clicking together materialized by a bulb lighted above his head? That's exactly what happened here.

"Mitarashi…"Raidou turned his head in my direction, an eyebrow raised.

The girl with the dyed hair, who was with Itachi, it was the Mitarashi's daughter, Anko.

"There's a possibility for the Mitarashi and the Uchiha to be in contact," I said in one fell swoop, turning suddenly toward Raidou. He frowned.

"Uchiha as in 'the head of the internal security department Uchiha'? What makes you say that?"

"Anko and Itachi were together yesterday."

Raidou was obviously thinking about all the implications this could mean. I opened the door, and got out of the car. I turned before closing the door.

"I'll come tonight to make my report."

" 'Kay… I'm gonna see this with the Information folks… Nothing else?"

"Prevent Genma from loaning his piece of junk to Zabuza next time."

Raidou couldn't refrain himself from chuckling. I could have easily read in his mind. He was relived I was going back to 'normal'. If you ever could put me in the 'normal' category. You seriously had to stretch it.

"I'll see what I can do about that, sorry I needed my piece of junk yesterday… see you tonight."

"Take care of Rin."

On this word, I slammed the door and headed toward the front door of the house. I was pleased to have managed to make Raidou blush. This tiny stupid thing had lifted my mood a bit. What a shame I hadn't had a camera… his expression would have been one to keep for posterity, on the HQ walls; no, better yet, in the locker rooms.

They weren't hoping I wasn't going to notice it, were they?

I opened the door. High spirits, here I come.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Kami bless the one who thought about creating the shower… I wasn't smelling of alcohol and vomit anymore, I had a clean shirt on; my clothes smelling of stale tobacco smoke, alcohol and others were in the washing machine; I wasn't waiting for anyone and I was alone. I could take a little time for myself now.

It had begun to rain. I sat on the steps of the back door, sheltered from the water. The garden could have use a mowing, four month ago.

The fallen leaves were surrounding in thick carpets the trunks of the few trees growing there. It was cold. It was relaxing. Behind the garden, beyond the fence which hadn't seen a paint pot since my father's death, the old oaks of the park were rising. Further beyond, even if it couldn't be seen from there, I knew the old temple was silently resting.

There wasn't any sound, save for the one the rain was making when falling on the roofs. Obito had hated this kind of weather, and he hadn't missed a chance to remind me I should be shady not to agree with him.

It was just a perfect weather for brooding.

I circled my knees with my arms, and I rested my head on them, watching the rain drops with an half open eye.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

A dark figure armed with an umbrella walking up the streets made me look up from the book I had picked. The rain had came down twice as hard as before a good quarter of an hour before, forcing me to retreat to the dry and warm inside.

The figure was slowly walking up the street, stopping next to the mailbox with unreadable numbers. It passed up my window… and I didn't see it pass up the next one on the other side of the door, to continue to the other side of the street. The bell of the front door rang.

I mentally drew up the inventory of the hidden weapons in my reach and of the jutsu I could throw in the face of my unknown visitor and that could pass for an accident. Yeah, I'm paranoid, I think I already mentioned that.

I opened the door.

"Hi! I got your jacket!"

This was most known under the name of 'The lethal attack of the too cheerful grin too early in the morning'. Okay, it was around ten a.m.. And he had a nice face when he was smiling. Hey, don't misunderstand me! I didn't say he was cute!

"Iruka, are you always this hyper in the morning?"

"Hangover?" he asked, smiling.

We were still face to face on the threshold. I eyed him from head to toe.

"Are you aware that an umbrella is supposed to keep the one under it dry? Get in."

"Eh! I…"

I dragged him forcefully in the entrance/living/whatever it was supposed to be in the first place.

"I was just passing to give your jacket back, I gotta got back, I didn't know you were living so far away when going on foot ; I'm on service for lunch!"

I threw him a towel fished from the kitchen.

"Dry you up a bit if you don't want to catch a cold… Service?"

The trickling creature in my living nodded the towel.

"I'm working in my uncle's restaurant on the weekends, we're living above it. You should drop by one of these days…" He looked down to the little puddle his feet were making. "Oh fuck, I'm sorry…"

"Don't worry about that."

"You sure? I don't want to get you in troubles with your parents…"

I cut him off. "You had to get up earlier to disturb them."

Me and my sick humor… will I ever learn to shut up? He looked at me an instant, obviously wondering. He was better with his hair tied, his face was visible at least. Wait one second there. Who was I to say this?

He seemed to remember the presence of the pack on this back, took it, opened it and fished my jacket out from it.

"Here, thanks again. I've really got to go now."

He gave me back the now very wet towel, and turned toward the door. I leaned again the opened door, him already outside. He paused, barely turning his head in my direction. His cheeks had the faintest trace of pink on them, making the scar on his nose stand out. The effect of the cold already?

"Y'know… you're really different from in school. It's strange to see almost all your face."

Before I had found something to answer to that, he was gone. I checked myself. My hair was hiding the left side of my face as usual, so what… oh, yeah, I had just a tee-shirt on, without any kind of collar to hide behind.

He had warm brown eyes, almost of the color of chocolate, and I was beginning to wonder if the red color of his cheeks yesterday night had really been due to the cold.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO End seventh part OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

_A huge thank to Hgirl 69 who betaed this chapter! Kyree, y'know, you can try to review in French if you want…Have some nice summer holidays everyone!_


	8. Chapter 8

**A shinobi is a high school student like another - 8**

_Sorry about the long wait. Also, this is the unbeated chapter, I'll post the edited one as soon as I got it ( there's no rush ! Take your time). Moreover, the 9th and 10th chapters are translated and I'm working on the 11th so expect more updates in the following week._

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

As I told Raidou in the morning, I went to make my report in the evening. The suspicions I had told him about had already snowballed: all the Info department was overworked, busy to examine again and in details every piece and tidbits of information we had in the light of this new lead.

I learned by Sensei that Haku and Zabuza hadn't discovered much more than we already knew, just enough to confirm some burning leads on drug traffics networks and little dealers; our part of the job was done, the cops had just to do their now.

There has been a silence after he told me that, the kind of uncomfortable silence you try to avoid under normal circumstances. Sensei cleared his throat.

"I'm sorry to have send you yesterday. I should have…"

"You should have done what? Rub my face in? Remind me what day it was? You don't have to be sorry. It's my fault if I've forgot."

I knew Sensei was feeling as guilty as me for Obito's death. He didn't have to add to that the guilt for my own sorry head. He looked me in the eyes – with the mask on, I can say that's quite an achievement – looking at me with a sad but determined look. That's Sensei for you. He nodded. Knowing me as he knew me, he knew he wouldn't be able to make me change my mind.

"Zabuza and Haku are in one of the training room with the rest of the team."

I nodded shortly as a salute before doing a sharp 180 and leaving his office.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

I found all of them in the second training room, which one was, fortunately for us, empty save for them.

Zabuza and Genma were face to face in combat stances in the middle of the room, sizing each other up, trying to spot the flaw in the stance, in the guard. They began to move. Encouragement and pieces of advice rose from the bench near the wall, where Haku and Raidou were sitting.

"Gen', watch out for his legs!"

"Zabi, make him eat dust!"

I quietly made my way to rejoin the audience. The two currently fighting were putting a good show. I could see that Genma was beginning to get fed up of seeing all his attacks meeting naught but thin air, and Zabuza was seemingly enjoying himself; but I couldn't say if he had this typical smirk he was sporting when having fun as he was wearing his mask.

I nodded to Haku and Raidou, their attention wrapped up in the friendly match.

"Aren't you working on the weekend?"

Haku shook his head, his eyes locked on the show of his boyfriend, his mask pushed up on his head keeping his long dark locks from falling into his face.

"Free weekend. By the way, you're eating with us at the apartment tonight."

"Ma'am, aye aye ma'am" I made with a half salute.

Raidou, who had listened the short exchange while keeping track of the fight between his teammates in front of him, laughed at my reply. With the mask on his face, it was making some interesting sound, a bit as if Darth Vader was choking in his respirator. It was kinda scaring.

Genma managed to get Zabuza down with a move falling under the 'Risky' category.

"Well done old man, I wouldn't have thought you could do it." I succeeded in my enterprise of making Genma lost his temper. But I couldn't say if I managed to get him to have this twitch in the eye he has when angry. Damn mask.

"You cocky brat! I'm only seven years older than you!"

He made there an unpardonable rookie mistake – to put it differently, an mistake leading often to the death of said rookie: he turned his back on his opponent, which one used the opportunity to make a beautiful sweep, which resulted in a not beautiful landing of the Genma.

"9.8 for the sweep, 4 for the landing."

"9.9 for the sweep."

"3 for the landing. Gen', you're rusting."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

The training became a kind of sparring tournament, one against one. It had been one of Obito and Genma's idea at the beginning. How I had found them stupid then. Now, it was an unspoken tradition. And it helped a lot to better knew each other, in a combat situation as in the real life.

Genma had made of this sparring tournament a real institution. The day or the day after the anniversary of Obito's death, he always managed to gather Raidou and me to have a round. This year, the presence of Zabuza and Haku was a nice change. And, if seen underneath the underneath, it was also a sign that they had been totally accepted in the 'infernal team'.

It was kinda weird to see Haku in a uniform… but, man, he knew how to fight. The saying 'you should look beyond the façade' had found a perfect illustration here.

When we get out of the lockers room, clad as any other teenager – okay, this doesn't apply to Haku but that's another story – and that we made our way toward the car parks, we made a slight detour by the Information department's corridors. Just to see if there were some fresh news.

I think most of the 'administrative' staff was there. And they all seemed very, very busy. We didn't stay long. Ibiki was there too.

Ibiki Morino is the kind of guy that you don't wish your worst enemy to meet, and that you're very happy borderline ecstatic to have for friend. Ibiki is the guy that even civilians avoid unconsciously, and not just because of the scars, and that the cops sometimes call when they got confessions to be spitted out of some pig-headed individuals. Said individuals generally spit out everything the cops want to know after five minutes in the same room as Ibiki.

Ibiki at work on a job that is insulting his professional integrity ( but hey, who would have think to search for links between a king of the underworld and the guy who made of the fight against organized crime his hobby-horse, and not just as an election campaign argument?), you don't stand in his way, and you don't ever, ever bother him. Even me, I don't stay around for too long in this case, though I do other things to him that would be receive a death warrant if it wasn't me. Well, when you think that the guy changed your diapers and babysitted you, among other things, it helps to become immune to the frozen death glares that makes you wonder if hell is not warmer by chance.

We went quickly away. In the corridor, we crossed a stack of paper with legs – the mop of hair at the top seemed familiar. Oh, yeah, it was Kodia.

"Kakashi, what have you done this time? She doesn't even have the time to throw me out!" Just a reminder, Kodia's girl works for Ibiki.

"Get to work Kodia, Ibiki's waiting."

The vampire got as pale as a dead, and left us behind quickly.

Once at the car park, our little group stopped in front of two well-known cars. Genma unlocked his.

" 'Kay, who ride with me?"

Without another word, Zabuza, Haku and me, we went to hide behind Raidou.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

As soon as we entered Zabuza and Haku's place, the later ran to the kitchen part of their small living, opened and went through most of the cupboard and went back with a list in his hands to Zabuza and Genma who had just stepped in. His boyfriend raised an eye-brow.

"It's still early, so I got the time to cook a bit, I want to make sukiyaki but we don't have any noodles, mushrooms and onions left, and we don't have enough eggs and mirin. Can you go buy some?" he answered with a smile at the unspoken question, while shoving them both out of the apartment.

Before Zabuza and Genma had understand what exactly was going on, they were already out. Raidou half-smiled.

"I bet they're going to forget the beer… I'm going too."

Before I had understand half of what had happened, I was alone with Haku in the apartment.

"Gimme a hand?" He asked me with a bright grin.

I folded my jacket over the couch, and watched – from afar – the Haku tornado in the kitchen. He ended by quiet down some.

"It wasn't a very subtle way to get them out…"

"But it worked, doesn't it?"

I didn't reply to that, contenting myself with getting closer from the battlefield, otherwise known as the kitchen.

"Kakashi… what happened yesterday?"

I certainly wasn't expecting that; I unconsciously tensed. As say the French saying, an angel passed. At this rate, the whole heavens crossed upon us. Haku looked away, staring at the vegetables he had put on the counter.

"Sorry, I'm… it's just that… well, Zabuza told me how you have been all week, and even if we don't work together that much, I know you're not the kind to stop a job for nothing… so, I guess it's just concern. Zabuza was a bit worried about you too, even if he doesn't show much."

I breathed deep, then I smiled. It was hard to remember that Haku was a guy sometimes… like just now. He was making me think of Rin, Kami knew why.

"I'm gonna end up believing you're a girl…"

Haku turned toward him, disbelief written all over his face.

"What?"

Oh _merde_, it wasn't supposed to be said out loud…

"No, nothing, it's nothing, forget it!" I said with a embarrassed grin. The smile fell quickly. "About yesterday… I'd rather not talk about it. Not now. Not yet."

Haku nodded. I internally sighed with relief. He knew when to stop pressing, and this subject wasn't one I was ready to be pressed on. I changed the topic of the talk quickly.

"Eh, by the way, where and how did you learn to cook?"

"… What that's supposed to mean mister…?"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

It was a good evening, a quiet one between friends, around a good meal and good beers. A good evening, yeah.

Without the need of concerting, we drank a first and silent toast to all of those we knew who would not be able to ever have such evening again. Then, I proposed another one, but this one was not silent. I raised my can of beer, swallowing with some difficulty the lump in my throat. This very lump which was threatening to choke me.

"To Obito."

A muscle played on Raidou's jaw, Genma's eyes got slightly unfocused. They raised their beers too.

"To Obito."

"…To Obito."

Zabuza and Haku raised their beers too, in a silent support – I noticed Zabuza frowned briefly when hearing the name, but it wasn't impossible that he had already heard Obito's name in the HQ's corridors; the chances he had already worked with him were close to none.

The rest to the evening went well, with mention to the fact that Genma had decided to told us every single fucking stupid thing he'd done in his life – and he did so until Raidou whispered something in his ear that made in shut up -, and that Haku, once comfortably tipsy – self-note: never let Haku get too close from alcohol in the future – harassed Zabuza and me to know more about the "so cute guy from yesterday, the one with the scar on the nose". I would have been in Zabuza's shoes, I think I would have get a bit worried. But apparently, it was the normal behavior of a a-bit-merry Haku. I don't think I want to see ever Haku drunk…

A good evening.

Raidou brought me back to my house – the ride had been silent, save for when he asked if I preferred to sleep at Rin's. I would have loved to tease him a bit about this, but the short night more the training more the washed evening, I was thinking I had enough of a flat to sleep without troubles in my usual bed – well, the one even more usual that Rin's one.

As I expected, as soon as I fell on my bed, I was dead to the world.

The last thought which crossed my mind before I succumbed into Morpheus' arms was "I forgot to ask his uncle restaurant's name to Iruka"…

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo End Eighth Part OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo


	9. Chapter 9

**A shinobi is a high school student like another- 9**

'_don't look away. I need to know if this is real._

_Don't look away. I need to know- when will this end?' - Thursday, 'The other side of the crash/over and out (of control)_

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Sunday went uneventful. Except if you call a day which you have spent running behind a loud and hyperactive blond kid eventful.

Sara had decided to kidnap her idiot of a husband for the day, leaving me their kid in the process.

Sara, yeah, Sara, the only woman out there who's brave enough to have married my sensei and to have had a kid with him, and who still got the guts to support the two of them. Well, okay, sometimes, we wonder if sensei doesn't come to the HQ just to escape her. She's a great girl, a real iron hand in a velvet glove. It's no wonder she ended up getting herself a high political place - she literally squishs her oppponents...

Hey, while I'm thinking about it, she had worked several times in circles very close from Fugaku Uchiha, 'big chief' of Internal Security for many years now; I'll make sure to point this out to her when they'll come back to pick up their personnal tornado - their orange-clad tornado. I'm wondering if she wouldn't have some kind of problem with this color since she buy so much orange clothes to her child. Poor brat's gonna end with a color-trauma.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Ah, the (in)famous Monday morning and its double French class...

I had arrived at school early, ten minutes before the first ring - this was surprising enough to be noted. I found Zabuza in front of the still closed classdoor, and Umino - no, Iruka, came in a few moments after, a hat pulled on hs face amolst to his nose. I smiled. The weather had gone suddenly cold; snow was waited for soon.

Zabuza dug out from a pocket a slip of paper that he handed to Iruka.

"Haku wanted me to give you that."

I briefly saw numbers. I narrowed my eye.

"That doesn't bother you that Haku give your number like that?"

"Bah," made Zabuza while shrugging an half-shoulder. "As long as he let me sleep on the doorstep."

Oka-ay... He was definitely not of the jealous type. I theatracically put a hand on his shoulder.

"My couch is yours if you need."

"Thank man, you're a real bro."

"Well, I could have said 'my bed', but I wasn't exactly feeling like having a mad Haku on my case too early..."

I avoided, chuckling, the blow he send me. Iruka was looking at this amazing display of maturity without seeming to be disoriented. And, suddenly, the gears clicked and his lighting bulb switched on. I admit, this is a bit malicious, but it's so fun to witness, particulary when it's Haku we're talking about.

"Hey, wait, wait... 'He'?"

And then, at this exact moment, the bell rang. As a result, Zabuza and me spend the all class snickering while the poor Iruka was plunged into the depths of doubt. I'd like to mention I'm rarely this cruel, but it was too fun to be missed.

_'Tain_, the face Iruka had pulled between his hat and his collar... good enough to eat - Hey, from where does that come ?

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Ah, the (in)famous overcrowded corridors... It was clear that winter and the cold temperatures that comes along with had settled for good. All the high school animal life was fighting to get a warm place - warm as used here is a very relative concept. It was more 'body heat' than 'radiator heat'.

When you could get between the half-knocked down lockers that were taking half of the corridors and the animals known as students while having stepped on the feets of only three people, you could consider yourself happy.

It was basically the same in the canteen. We were almost sitting one on another. Not that the food was extraordinarily good - it was canteen food, enough said.

I was carefully touching with the end of my fork what was annouced as 'turkey's escalope'. This was rather an example of the famous urban legend called Mystery Meat.

Iruka dropped on the last seat available in the whole refectory. No need to precise it was the seat in front of me.

"Can I?"

"...go on..."

He began to pick at the content of his plate. I hadn't seen him this morning after the " 'he'?" thing before the frst class, and I hadn't seen him from this close. He had circles around his eyes. And he generally didn't looked all this good.

"You don't look okay," I commented on, giving up on my examination and my meat.

"It's nothing..." He frowned. "I hadn't seen you eating here before."

Me neither. Hey, how you think I managed to be on time this morning, seriously? ...I jumped the 'breakfast' square.

"I forgot to eat this morning."

Iruka went back to his plate.

I had a quick glance at my surroundings - the four other people at the end of the table were talking very animatly of the european soccer championship and weren't giving a damn about the two other individuals present, namely, us.

No one was giving a damm about us. Time to go. I would be finally able to get sure about a little something that was bothering me with the guy in front of me.

My plan of action was to get the hair out of my eyes for a second, just the time to get a glance at Iruka's chakra path, if chakra there was; and for this, I had to model a timy amount of my chakra.

My plan stopped at the model step; hey, I didn't even had begun to gather some chakra that Iruka had grimaced and winced with pain, clenching his head in his hands.

My hand crossed the narrow table to land on his shoulder.

"Hey, Iruka! Are you okay?"

"It's nothing, it's nothing..." he said, breathing deep and slow. "It happens all the time..."

I had seen enough to recognize a relaxation/pain-killer technique when I was seeing one, and Iruka was using it with the ease born from repetition. This was really happing often to him.

"Geez man, don't scare me like that!"

He moved his hands out of his face just enough for me to notice his smile. I couldn't help but smiling back. My hand left his shoulder, as with regret.

"Don't worry about that."

And, with that, he was gone. Oh, I had forgot to ask about his uncle's restaurant.

The rest of the day wasn't of the exciting kind.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Excitment could be smelled in the air.

At school, you could smell in the vitiated air breathed by a thousand chests that the snow would be falling down soon - just like the holidays. I was sincerly feeling sorry for the teachers. Everyone was tired but nervous, excited, and irritable.

The atmosphere was the same in the HQ, but for different reasons.

One, our Info members were ready to pull their hair out, for who had some left. All our informations and documents were incompletes. As in "intentionally incomplete". The important parts weren't where they were supposed to be, some parts were plainly missing. All the files in our possession had been very carefully gone through and meticulously earsed. This had been done by professionals. If we hadn't begin to look into our files for links between the Uchiha and the Mitarashi, we would have had little chances of noticing this. Either our corps had been 'mole-ed', or there were some smart Alecs who had put their payed noses where they shouldn't have.

Anyway, I wasn't giving much of their hides. Ibiki had been given the job of finding them by a very worried Sandaime.

He was worried by the 'Two': the boss of the most powerful local drug cartel - powerful to the point it was beginning to put the 'old' european drug cartels in the shades, the same ones which were the current masters of the Konoha underground - wanted to talk.

He wanted just a nice and gentle little meeting to talk between bosses. Yeah, that's it, and I'm Terminator, nice to meet you Sarah.

And Sandaime had asked my sensei to go, escorted by the people he seemed fit. It was just as if Sandaime wished to show to all the undesirable fauna out there that when he would stand aside, he had some serious reserves ready to take over.

Yondaime had took me apart to talk to me about this. He wished for the whole 'Infernal team' to go with him, more some others. He wished for me to go, along with Zabuza, just for showing off, and to show we were combing as wide as the cartels for our recruitment. Until this point, I was okay.

He also wished for us to go in 'full ninja' mode. Understand for me, with my face in the open. Well, okay, just a half of my face; just my eyes. I really said my eyes, as in one and two, two eyes. No way in hell. When it would be pretty fun to make the vilians piss in their pants from fright, there was no way in hell that both of my eyes would be in the open as sensei asked. Please note that he asked, he didn't ordered me anything. He could have. But by refusing, I was following the orders which had been issued to me three years ago now, the same order which had become a part of my life and a personnal choice: 'Top secret' first, then 'Minimum living wage of people knowing'.

I would go with him. It wasn't like I could possibly let the guys go without me. But I would go along with my mask firmly secured on my face.

All that -HQ and school- was seriously dampening the general atmosphere; Haku, Zabuza, Genma, Raidou and Rin were feeling the aftereffects of all this jazz too. A chance our nights were calm for the most part.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Thursday morning. The air was seeming to be even heavier and thicker with tension. From time to time could be heard some shout that was covering the student background noise -a shout that was often sounding like "just two weeks to go before the holidays!". The tension and the excitation were rising with the approach of the snow; the Forecast Weather Channel had announced it for the following week.

I was waiting for the lunch break to end, seated alone next from my following class's door. Zabuza had his class somewhere on the other side of the building, and the others members of the human race weren't counting.

I was killing time observing from behind a book the masses moving in the relative space of the corridors.

I saw a well-known brown head heading in my way, passing through the corpses launched on unpredictable trajectories. Iruka.

Strangely, I seldom had had the time to catch him after Monday lunch – well, okay, I had dropped the whole 'no breakfast' idea to get at school in time too. We didn't really had a lot of classes together. I had however managed to chat with him once or twice, without trying my chakra trick again. He was… okay. He was maybe more okay than anyone else I had put under the 'okay' category. _Enfer_, he was definitively more okay than anyone.

Iruka was almost in front of our class door when the 'incident' happened.

Remember what I said earlier about our corridors? About the lockers which took half the place, and about the crowd that invade said corridors once the temperature threaten to drop below freezing? And that walking without walking on someone's foot was impossible?

There, suddenly, there was a large free space in the middle of the corridor, less than two meters from where I was standing. And in the middle of this space, were Iruka – and another guy.

I quickly recognized him. Benjamin Ford, aka 'Benji', member of the Itachi's Loonies sect – a hefty guy, one you would tag as a jock, or as a bully; the kind of guy to go out only with cheerleaders and to be in the first rows of the football match, of the drinking contests and of the fights. Most definitively in the first rows for the fights.

He was cornering Iruka against the lockers, blocking every withdrawal and insulting him at point-blank range.

"Shut up fag! You almost knocked me down, I ask for amends fucker! You got something to said against that queer?"

And no-one around was lifting a single finger. I moved trough the crowd, who, as a good crowd she was, had gathered in a circle around the event's epicentre, waiting for blood to be shed.

I put a hand on Benji's shoulder – he was still towering upon Iruka, nearly crushing him with his presence. Iruka wasn't saying anything, his eyes locked on the floor, away from the mastodon who was dying with the desire of embedding his fist somewhere – and preferably somewhere which would make his victim fall down and humiliate himself. Benji was this kind of guy. I was even wondering why Itachi was keeping him around.

"Eh, keep it cool Benji, there's not enough place in the corridors to keep from bumping into each other and you know it…."

'With the space you take in the corridor, you were bound to get bumped into someday' sounded kinda good too, but I quickly figured that it wasn't that well adapted to the circumstances.

Iruka suddenly lifted his head, and stared at me with wide eyes. Benji jerked my hand away with a violent shrug.

"Well well, seems that you can talk finally? Came to rescue your girlfriend?"

I wasn't liking Benji's face at all. I had to expect the worse. _Think like a student, not like a combatant, think like a student, not like a combatant…_ I nodded to Iruka, praying he would get the hint and get the hell away from here.

"Calm down man, you're just asking for troubles."

_Merde_. This was definitively not one of the best sentences to say right now. The crowd gasped. Benji's hands shot suddenly to grip my collar, banging me the lockers. My head made a very nice 'BANG' against the metal. _Think like a student, not like a combatant, think like a student, not like a combatant…_ My hands went to encircle his wrists, but not tight enough to let him go.

"Yeah, exactly – and I got troubles with who I want junkie. Bad luck! Today's your and your little friend turn."

Fuck, where are the competent authorities when you need them? _Think like a student, not like a combatant, think like a student, not like a combatant…_ Benji's left hook was administered with an ease that spoke of regular use – spreading itself comfortably on my right cheekbone, and causing my head to bang once again in the metal behind me.

The crowd whispered, took a step back, moved forward, bloodthirsty.

_Ouch, that hurts son of a bitch!_

Iruka had stepped back, but the curious were blocking him the retreat path. Without letting me the time to catch back my breath to control, or trying to control, the pain that was erupting from my eye to the corner of my mouth, Benji was chasing down again his first prey. He has just seized Iruka, that an aristocratic hand was holding his fist back.

"Stop that Benji, no need to continue."

The Godfather, in flesh, in blood and in hair had talked. Benji literally deflated. He send one last hateful glare at Iruka, then glued himself to Itachi's heels, the crowd moving apart before them, and closing itself behind them, as if they were swallowed by it, making them disappear without a noise, without a trace.

Iruka came toward me, and get down to my level – I had slide down on the floor when King Itachi had appeared. Benji had definitively one hell of a punch. I was quite sure to end blue-faced by tomorrow.

The crowd was thinning out, gossiping out loud and playing again the scene that had happened before them, again, and again, and again.

Iruka was looking my in the eyes.

"You didn't have to do that…"

He stretched an hesitating hand to my badly red cheek.

"It seemed a good idea?" I said, trying to attempt a lopsided smile.

He smiled back, an half-smile that was hiding so much things – and strangely, I wanted to discover those things, those secrets, to discover and to share them with mines.

"Thank you."

And this thank you seemed to mean much more than just 'thank you'.

A supervisor showed up suddenly, as if he was jumping out of his box. My ass, I bet he had quietly waited behind a corner of wall for the show to end to come out picking up the bits and sweep the floor. It's Itachi and his gang that 'make' the law in the student sphere here.

"Umino, Hatake!" he barked. "In the headmaster's office, now!"

There's no justice.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo End Ninth Part

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Make me an happy fangirl-writer : reviews?


	10. Chapter 10

**A shinobi is a high school student like an other - 10**

_I'd like to know if there are boys-men reading this, one because the pseudonym usually doesn't help at all, and two because it seems that my french-readers are all girls. So, if there are males out there, um, make me know? Thanks._

_This takes place in Konoha, english is **not **the main language ( and the bits in french are here just 'cause they're in english in the original story)._

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

The first part of our 'punishment' consisted in waiting. And we waited far too long, seated on those plastics chairs that should have been forbidden by the Geneva Convention on torture. And on top of the 'waiting uncomfortably in front of the doors of the local relevant authority known as headmaster', an unpleasant-looking supervisor was, well, supervising us, just to be sure we didn't begin another brawl here and now.

Okay, maybe this guy wasn't that unpleasant, but for the little I could see, he had a bulldog face - or maybe one worthy of a bouncer.

And I really could see not more than a little. 'Cause yeah, my cheek had decided to grow. This was the 'why' in 'why Iruka kept stealing worried glances in my way since I had declined his offer of hunting cold water to keep my face from swelling too much'.

We waited. We waited some more. The supervisor had stopped bothering with looking in our way. I stretched on those uncomfortable and unbearable things they dared to call 'chairs'.

"Nothing to do with the current situation..." I began, turning toward Iruka - erm, turning the side of my face which wasn't hidden by my hair, the same one which was swelling like the proverbial frog, toward Iruka. He turned suddenly to face me. I finished, " ... but your uncle's retaurant, how is it called? Must be at least a week I forgot to ask you."

He smiled.

"It's in the old european district, it's more a pub than a restaurant... the 'Ocean's shore'."

I narrowed my eye. Ha, I more or less gave the general idea of an eye-narrowing. Try it when your cheekbone is twice is usual size.

"You're kidding?"

I'd like to remind everyone that the family name of the guy in front of me is 'Umino', literaly 'of the sea'. It goes rather nicely with the 'ocean's shore'.

Iruka pouted at my reply... may someone makes him stop doing faces like that please... breathe Hatake, breathe.

"I'm deeply sorry to disappoint you, but if you think you're the first to come out with that, you're swimming in desillusion."

Finally the headmaster showed up, looked at us very seriously from behind his hands crossed over his desk - said desk was a lot more organized than my sensei's one I have to mention -, while 'us' were sitting on other unconventionals means of torture which had escaped the attention of the already seen higer Convention's signatories. I won't get through the bullshit he uttered. We didn't even try to defend our case, it would have been a waste of breath and saliva.

The sentence fell at least. Fight in the corridors, two days' expulsion. Our dear little selves weren't wanted here before the next Tuesday. And more, he was going to call our parents for them to get their deliquents away from the civilized world. Boo I'm scared.

I would have liked to know how he was explaining the fist mark on my face though. I had put myself one like a big guy?

So we were waiting again, silent, in the headmaster's office, for our 'parents' to pick us up and the headmaster to talk to them in the process.

I was wondering who would come for me... Sensei, I doubted it a lot, even if officially he was the one who had to come since he was my guardian.

I was hoping that it wouldn't be Ibiki... although Ibiki here and me with a camera, it could get pretty fun, especially for the faces pulled by the people who would happen to cross him.

A while after, a guy built like a rugby player, nearly as wide as Zabuza but in blond version, knocked to the door and entered in the office. Iruka stood up, facing the guy who had just came in.

No need to go the detail of what the headmaster said - it was just a bunc of bullshit. The interesting part, it's that as soon as Iruka and the guy put a foot outside the office, they began to chat in a very fast and nearly ununderstandable english.

This was a new mystery for Detective Kakashi. And how a scandinavian-looking blond guy could be of Iruka's family?

And I waited, and i waited some more.

I was really the last person I would have expected who came. Raidou - okay, I would have understood. Genma too, even if he was less convincing in the big brother part. Haku, I had thought about it, but what would he had been supposed to play the part of? My sister?

Said last person etc.. stepped into the office, nodded and made horrified faces at the right moment of the headmaster's monologue, pulled an act in the office, hands on the hips and all - and this in the perspective that the high school authorities would leave me the hell alone 'till kingdom come - and dragged me out of the office by the arm.

This person, as maybe you guessed, it was Rin.

Once we were away from any eavesdropper - meaning when we got out of the school, she took my chin in a hand and looked at my face from closer with a frown.

"What happened?"

I made it quick. "Stopped a guy from hitting another."

She made a disapproving pout."It doesn't look like you succeded."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Rin's little remark followed me all day.

I got it from Tsunade, from Raidou, from Genma, from Zabuza when he got to the HQ after school...

But they all got the short version of what happened : a guy was ready to punch another and punched me instead. I didn't told anyone what really hahappened nor who were the guys exactly, but supposed Zabuza had an idea. He had some great clues anyway, with Iruka and me not in class and the rumor going like crazy.

Tsunade did little more than stopping the swelling of my face; the marvelous rainbow of colors which was slowly spreading over my cheekbone would be taken care by Mother Nature.

Finally, i spent the rest of the day and the day after in HQ, getting myself useful. Here, understood that I had took pity upon Sensei who was sinking in the moutains of papers piled up on his desk.

Some more important stuff happened too, like the finag lization of the meeting between us and the local new mafioso. It would take place the Saturday of next week, in one of the old shed once used for stocking in the former industrial area, now converted in a nightclub - it was supposed to be a neutral place.

I was a bit sketic about all this jazz.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

I left the HQ Friday at the time I left school usually, and once I was certain Sensei wasn't going to call me back in a panic - or at least, that his call would wait till the next day. This weekend added with the Monday, would be the first one I would spend in 'full service' for three years, it was kinda weird.

For now, I was walking in the streets of Konoha, the 'Ocean's shore' adress found in the phone book in my pocket and my hands over it. It was cold, but not cold enough to force me to wear an anorak over my sweater; even if the cold air whizzing between the buildings were dropping the temperatures a bit lower, and lower.

The european district, as its name indicated, had been built by the european merchants and diplomates who had settled first in Konoha, when the situation between the ninja villages had been cleared after all the hidden wars. The settling of the europeans fitted in with the period where the ninja villages began to be ninja only in name. The ninja clans and bloodlines had survived only thanks to secret and/or underground organizations such as ours.

The streets were wide, the buildings high, with windows everywhere and ornaments on the façades. Here and there, some buildings had been 'rehabilitated'... meaning that they now looked like the buildings that could be spotted anywhere in Konoha: high, with flat roofs, shed-like façade. In one word, they were ugly.

The 'Ocean's shore' adress squared with a street filled with buildings of this kind. The pub himself could hardely be missed - the sign of a deep green was taking all the width of the building, and under the sign, the windows were made of many little squares.

I pushed the door open - some handbells tinkled.

Indoors, it wasn't dark, nor smoky, nor crowded, like we can picture a pub. No, it was full of space, the walls were covered by wood, there were tables put far enough from one another, there were patchworks, old british posters and reproductions of paintings sticked up here and there, a large bar at the far end and stools standing at attention in front of it.

There were some people, and they were all gathered on the tables the closer from the bar. As a musical background, a guy was singing to his girlfriend that she shouldn't forget who was taking her back home, and to save the last dance for him.

This place was comfortable, I was feeling like I was someplace I knew was safe.

Iruka was behind the bar, busy polishing glass. I stepped closer from the bar, and he smiled when he spotted me. It made me smile back.

I appripriated myself a stool, and crossed my arms on the wooden bar, just in front of him.

"Hi! You finally found it, my 'uncle's restaurant'..."

"Yo... once I had the adress, it wasn't that hard..." I made a lopsided smile. A normal smile forced me to move my all face, and even if it wasn't swollen anymore, it hurt like hell. The mark was at the 'brand new bruise' stade, of a beautiful purple-blue against my very pale skin.

Iruka moved nearer from me to look at my competition's bruise.

"He really didn't pull his punches."

I chuckled.

"You can said that again!"

A guy got out from the nearest door, the one which looked like it opened on the kitchen - that is to say, a door that looked like every restaurant's kitchen door: without doorknob, with a sort of portehole in the middle. I had a feeling like I had already seen the guy; with hair that going in spikes, he was difficult to miss. He came to where we were.

"I've ended the dishwashing from lunch! Can I drink now? Oh," he made, when he saw the color of my face, "nice black eye."

"Thanks."

Iruka elbowed the guy.

"Tsch, keep it still for once. Kakashi, that's Kotetsu, the only guy I know to have a direct brain-mouth connexion..."

"Hey! You're mean 'Ruka!"

We shaked hands over the bar.

"Hey, I knew I've had already saw you; you're in Kurenai's classes, no?"

"Yep, and you, you're the Kakashi who saved 'Ruka from getting Benji on his case... either you're suicidal, or you got some fucked guts man. You both got lucky Itachi get himself over there before Benji had seriously begun."

I frowned. He had said 'Itachi' without the hate or the awe usually glued to his name in a student mouth.

"You sound like you know Itachi pretty well..."

Iruka shrugged from a shoulder, picking up his polishing where he had left it. The guy singing after his girl had left for some Bowie from the great period. Kotetsu answered.

"Rather well, yeah, we were a bloody lot with all the nutcase from around..."

"I think I still got a picture of everyone somewhere," said Iruka.

"...Itachi was one of our best bud, a great guy," continued Kotetsu."But since we all got to high school, he changed... a lot."

"We still don't know why. He created another circle and left his separated way."

"But luckily for you, that don't refrain him from saving your sorry ass!" ended Kotetsu while elbowing Iruka for good mesure.

A man as blond as the guy who had came to pick Iruka up, but older, stood up from one of the table and talked loudly enough for Iruka to hear.

"_Iruka ! Go fetch your cousin before he freezes his asses off on the roof ! And you and Ko' are free to go for now!"_

Iruka put down rag and glass and walked around the bar, followed by Kotetsu. I played the one who hadn't understood a single thing, but I stood up from my stool anyway. When Kotetsu came to my level, he grabbed my arm and looked my in the eyes.

"I hope for you you're serious with Iruka - he've seen enough shit," he hissed just loud enough for me to hear.

I found myself in the very uncomfortable situation of the guy who missed an episode. But the threat was clear enough in his voice.

Iruka called from the other side of the room, opening a door I hadn't seen labeled 'private'.

"Kakashi? You comin'?"

Kotetsu tightened his hold before letting go of my arm, and he left the pub without a glance back. I watched him go from the corner of my eye while walking to the door - it was opening on a stair in which Iruka had already vanished.

In the background, Bowie had make way for a girl who was calling off the search.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO End Tenth Part OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Kotetsu seen as "the only guy I know to have a direct brain-mouth connexion" comes from Scribbles-in-the-margins. If you haven't read 'Water runs red' yet, what are you still doing here?


	11. Chapter 11

**A shinobi is a high school student like an other – 11**

_Beta by Tampopo sensei – thanks thanks thanks!!_

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Iruka was waiting for me some steps ahead, with curiosity written all over his face. I could see it clearly since his hair was tied on the back of his neck, and not falling in his face and hiding his expressions. It seemed that he only tied his hair back outside the school.

"What did Ko' want?"

I shrugged, the implications of what Kotetsu had said just beginning to sink in. Genma was right, as much as I hated to say it: I _was_ stingy in civilian.

"Oh, nothing... he sure seems quite protective..."

Iruka turned away, lifted his head to the skies and resumed climbing the stairs -but he had not turned away quickly enough for me to miss the blush spreading over his face. We passed a level, and we climbed some more. His jeans weren't baggy enough to hide his ass, right at the level of my eyes, on those stairs… Bad thoughts you naughty boy. I cleared my throat.

"Er, Iruka? What happened in the bar exactly?" I said, acting the part of the guy who hadn't understood a single thing earlier.

He glanced my way, still climbing the stairs.

"The guy who talked to me, he's my uncle, Syd. He asked me to go fetch Shika before he freezes to death on the roof, and he added that Ko and me were done for now."

"Syd? Is he a Pink Floyd fan? And … Shika?"

"Hey, you're the first one to make the link by the way, I don't know if he's a fan… And Shika, that's short for Shikamaru, my cousin."

It was getting better and better. The whole family had decided to surprise me.

"As in Nara 'The shadows Tactician' Shikamaru?"

I heard his smile in his voice.

"Hey, great… Syd is a fanatic about ninja history, he couldn't help himself… My aunt named their daughter, and he named their son."

"Go on, frighten me for life, what's your cousin called?"

He laughed. "No need to be afraid of her name; she's Emily."

The stairs finally ended, three stories higher than the ground. Iruka opened the door -which opened onto the roof. We slalomed between the aerials and the solar panels to the edge of the flat roof. A brown haired boy was laying flat on his back on the wide low wall that marked the end of the roof.

"Hey, Shika, Syd wants you to go back inside," told him Iruka, once within hearing range.

The wind seemed colder here on the roof, than it had in the streets when I had arrived. Iruka's cousin -Shikamaru, couldn't be older than twelve, and was just wearing a cotton sweatshirt. I was very happy with my pullover, thank you very much.

"Pff," went the kid, "no chance of quiet..."

He rose from the wall, an expression of intense boredom etched on his face - an expression that wasn't fitting at all to so young face.

"He just doesn't want you to catch a cold -do you really want to have Alice on your back all day?"

The kid -no, Shikamaru grunted something that sounded like, 'How troublesome...' while slaloming in his turn between panels and aerials, to the door. Without looking back once at us who were staying on the roof.

Iruka stretched, raising his arms over his head and yawning for good measure. The wind was playing with the few brown hair which had escaped the hair tie. He spoke when the door slammed in the strangely quiet air.

"Shika is cool once you know him, he's just a bit weird and totally unmotivated."

"...seems I understood that part. Who's Alice?"

"My aunt, Syd's wife... by the way, how did you know about Nara Shikamaru?"

I tried to keep a steady tone of voice, the kind of voice every student uses to talk about nothing and everything… I gulped, looking away from Iruka's curious gaze.

"It was an inevitable point? Part? of my education."

It was inevitable. My voice was cold enough to give the devil frostbites down in hell.

"I…," began Iruka, obviously feeling that this little chat was sailing towards dangerous shores.

I cut him right away, a hand at the back of my neck and a lopsided smile on my face. "Sorry, I don't really like to talk about it -some other time maybe?"

As if I would be ready to talk about my father to anyone someday. But, who knows, maybe Iruka would be the exception.

Iruka smiled back at me. His breath beginning to create little clouds of white vapor. He slid his hands into his pockets, turning toward the major part of Konoha. We could see the skyscrapers of the business center, far away, and closer, the complicated roofs of the older buildings. Here and there we could see the scattered tops of the temples, churches and others religious edifices dispersed around the city according to religious denomination. We could see almost all of Konoha sprawled before us, draping herself in her clothes of light for the night who was coming fast. The light from the lampposts, windows and other beltway? creating orange-colored halos under the sky, low and heavy with white clouds.

I put myself just next to Iruka, taking in in the shared silence the sight of this city; this swarming city I was making work from the shadows; this changing city. I loved her as much as I hated her.

"You get the feeling that the whole town is yours from here," Iruka said softly. "She's so beautiful… but I've always wanted to see the sea from here…"

I slowly nodded, agreeing with him. And I could sense there was a story under his words, I could hear it.

He suddenly frowned, raising a hand as if to take his head between his hands, before letting it fall back to his side. He breathed in deeply. All this, I had learned to recognize as the signs that he had one of those headaches he had 'all the time'.

I frowned too.

"Hey Iruka, what are those headaches exactly?"

He hugged himself against the cold.

"Do you mind if we continue somewhere warmer?"

I wouldn't mind at all, the wind was beginning to pass through my pullover and slide under my tee-shirt. We left the same way we had come earier, stopping at the second level.

He unlocked the door closest to the stairs while explaining. "Syd, Shika and the rest of the family live on the third floor, over our heads. Behind, just over the bar, it's mostly storage space; and here, it's the employees' apartments. There's only mine and Sung's that are used though."

He made me enter into what I thought would be just his room. In place of a room, it was a real apartment, a kitchen with a counter opening, a door open to a bathroom, a big bed under the only but huge window, and a desk in a corner. There was a lot of space, shelves disappearing under the books, pictures and posters on the walls, a patchwork quilt thrown on the bed, clothes scattered here and there, magazines on the floor. It didn't look like my room at all, nor like my house. It was lived in and used; and , like the pub downstairs, it was a comfortable and cozy-known-some-place safe... This place felt like home, I had no other way to put it.

"Ah-er... sorry about the mess..."

"Na, don't worry, you should see my room... Sung?"

Iruka closed the door behind him, putting his key on the already-well-inhabited counter.

"SungBae Yong, it's the guy who's in the kitchen usually, but he caught the mother of all flu and he went back home -Kotetsu is doing most of his work till he come back."

He fished two bottles from his fridge and we sit -where we could-, one on the bed, one on the only chair once the stuff sitting on it had met the magazines. There was a framed picture next to me, and I couldn't help but pick it up to take a closer look. A little five or six-years-old Iruka, without his scar, was looking at me. Between a woman with the same eyes as him, fair hair and generally European looking, and a darker-skinned man, with black hair and slanted eyes. They had to be his parents.

"Aah! Don't look at that!" said Iruka, trying to grab it back.

"Why not? You're sooo cute on this picture!" I answered. He flushed violently, still trying to make me leave the picture alone.

"I was five!"

"Seriously, this picture rocks... It's your parents?"

Iruka had sat back. He nodded, but the topic didn't seem to please him. I didn't rub it in, seating the frame back where it had been in the first place. But such a picture, it was really so great... I didn't have one.

Iruka was massaging his temple with two fingers, frowning.

"What is it, those headaches of yours?"

Iruka put his head on his open hand.

"Nothing more than headaches... I've had that since forever really, I remember doing loads of tests to see if there was something wrong with me or not. Nothing ever came out of it. Anyway; it's just headaches coming and going... I got used to."

We chatted a while about stuff and things -it's not only a girls' thing this kind of chat y'know. At some point, he raised himself from the chair and put a CD into his radio, and we talked about music... Thanks Obito, for all the CDs you made me listen to, it was finally useful.

And then we talked about Itachi. There, Iruka stood up again.

"Wait, I'm gonna find this again...," he said, searching through pictures books hidden behind stacks of comics. "I've got a picture we're all in. I think we took it at the party we threw to celebrate the end of the school year and our entry into high school... I've got it."

He came back with a thick picture album, and sat next to me, opening the album on our thighs. The bottles were long since empty.

A picture took up a whole page. I recognized Iruka, Kotetsu and Itachi in it, even if the latter seemed nicer and younger here, with a large smile on his face. I didn't know the others. There was a guy with hair that fell in front of one of his eyes, another with a bandanna tied around his head and circles under his eyes, and the last one who had quite long white hair, obviously dyed.

"We stayed the same group from elementary school to the end of middle school -then, everybody went his own way. Itachi changed a lot during the first year in high school, Hayate's parents divorced... So there it is. By the way, Hayate is coming back to his father's next week, and he's throwing a party Saturday, you can come, he lives not far from your place."

"Mhm, who's Hayate?"

Iruka pointed to the one with the circles under his eyes. He named the other two as well.

"That's Izumo, he's the boyfriend of my cousin Emily –you must have crossed them in school, they're the local 'goth leaders'..."

I inclined my head, narrowed my eye and tried to imagine the normal guy on the picture clothed from head to toe in black and wearing eye-liner. Iruka laughed at my attempt.

"Well, yes, maybe..."

"And here, i-it's Mizuki."

Nothing more, and I hadn't missed the hesitation. The topic seemed closed. Iruka shut the album and turned his head toward me -while I was turning my head too, and toward him. Our faces were only a few centimeters apart. Behind us, a punk band whose name I had already forgotten was singing '_please someone touch me, dig away my loneliness, please someone please someone'. _We stayed stuck like that for a while -or maybe it was only for a second. And then Iruka turned away, standing to put his picture album back in its place. It seemed to me my heart had just remembered how to beat. A blank floated between us, the uncomfortable silence disturbed only by the still playing CD.

Someone knocked at the door and put his head inside –I recognized this someone as the guy who had came to fetch Iruka from school.

"_Sorry to interrupt guys, but it's time to get back to work 'Ruka."_

He closed the door behind him. Iruka looked at his watch.

"Seven p.m. already?"

"I suppose it's your shift… Wasn't he the guy who came to rescue you from school?" I asked, while standing up.

Iruka replied with an 'mm'.

"It's my other uncle, Franck, Syd's baby brother… I'm sorry, but I've got to go back to work…"

"No problem, I'm going to go back to my place…"

We were almost outside when Iruka asked me, "Will you come Saturday next week, to Hayate's?"

"Give me the address and I'll be there," I answered with a little smile.

He went back inside, fished a pen from somewhere on his counter, closed the door and took my hand in his in the corridor. He had warm hands. He wrote the address on the back of my hand.

"There, you don't need to show up early, most people won't be there before midnight…"

Once back in the pub, he went behind his counter. We waved and said, 'see you Tuesday', and I left the 'Ocean's shore' behind me.

Saturday of next week, I really hoped the nice little meeting between the drug lords and ninjas wouldn't last long.

While walking in the deserted streets, I replayed the last few hours in my head… especially the 'face-to-face' episode.

I had wanted to kiss him.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO End eleventh part OoOoOoOoOoOoO

_All Iruka's family are OC ( even is Syd is very influenced by Cid Highwind, from Final Fantasy VII if there were some who didn't know), Sung is an OC too, and Hayate, Izumo, Kotetsu and Mizuki are in the manga._

_The punk band forgotten by Kakashi is 'Thursday', and the song played was 'Into the blinding light' on the album 'A city by the light divided'._

_Thanks to all reviewers, each one of your comm help me. _


	12. Chapter 12

**A shinobi is a high school student like an other - 12**

_Unbeta-ed, so forgive my mistakes please._

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

'Full service', that meant you were staying in the HQ day and night till the end of said service. It had been three years since I had last slept on the supposed-to-be-bed of the HQ, and I hadn't missed it one bit.

The weekend had been strange, if not downright weird. Usually, when discreetly patrolling, we were always meeting shady things, such as brawls, deals, or organized fights, even the motor gangs fighting between them but on the street… There, nothing of that.

I spent Saturday and Sunday polishing my aim and my blades' skills.

The only thing we did of all week-end was being back-up for a covert police operation. We did nothing else but waiting though, there's was nothing to do. Zabuza was on the mission as well. I think he spent a good part of the time glancing my way, but with the masks on and the imposed radio silence, I couldn't be sure.

When we finally retreated to the HQ, I didn't had the time to ask him what was wrong, if something was; he was already gone.

In the end, Sunday night, half of the strength called for the weekend had the possibility to clear out if they wanted. That's what I did, and gladly.

Monday morning though, I was back to HQ. I had used the night to go over all the books and scrolls which have passed trough the family from generation to generation, those which dealt with chakra, ninjutsu, varied jutsu and ninja history. Not a single one talked about a reaction to chakra like Iruka's. It would have been easier if I had took a look at his chakra, but the idea to hurt him first, and then to do it without him knowing about it, was disgusting me.

What was certain now, after a night spent digging through old papers, was that it had never happened in my family, or in my family circle. I really had ancestors who had nothing else to do with their time but writing page after page about every single thing happening in the clan. Unfortunately for me, I had learned most of this stuff by heart.

I was hoping to find something into medical scrolls - tough luck. After had managing to persuade Tsunade to let me take a look at them, without really explaining why, and promised to be very very careful with her precious scrolls, I spent my morning reading them. So now, I was knowing everything about the ancient seals to seal cursed seal - not that it was really useful nowadays, this kind of seal had disappeared with the end of the Konoha-Oto war-, and I knew a bit to much about the very detailed and graphics effects of many different poisons, which hadn't all been used by others villages during the ninja times.

Nothing seemed to be connected even from afar to what I had seen happening to Iruka. And I could help but to have this nagging feeling I had to know.

Shizune found me at lunch time, still buried in the archives, trying to find something.

"Why don't you go look by the Research section?" she asked me.

I groaned and banged my head against the table. Why didn't I thought of this earlier?

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

The Research section is really little more than two offices barely passable because of the mass of paper ending here. They eat as much if not more paper here than in the Info, and the Info are definitely paper-eaters.

Then, 'Research' is only half secrete -its members pass just for crazy academics. After all, there are crazy academics; they put their hands and nose on everything dated from the ninja period to draw up family trees of still existing or vanished clans, and inventories about just everything they can think about, jutsu, weapons, treaties, and other nice little reminding left in the Nature by our venerable ancestors. If there is one place to ask about a jutsu, it's here.

But after that, all is a question of 'is the head of the section is in the mood to give you the information'….

I pushed open the door leading to Research. The boss was here, glued to his chair as usual, feet on his desk and cancer stick in mouth - the latter wasn't the brightest idea around, with so much paper stocked in the room.

I made a fan of my hand to try to clear away the smoke.

"Bonze bogus, think about airing, at least for your visitors' health sake!"

The bleached guy didn't even raise his glasses from his reading. "No-one is enough mentally retarded to come here brat, so shut up."

"Sorry, I need your lights Sanzo."

This made him put his reading on the desk and look at me.

"…Don't you know how to evade blows anymore?"

The bruise on my face was of a beautiful blue turning green-yellow. Don't ask me how such a color could exist, all I can said was that it wasn't a pretty sight. I breathed deep and plopped on a chair in front of Sanzo's desk. I took the time to wonder once more how could this guy be a buddist monk and a ninja. You really have to know to guess it, and still, when youo knew it, you couldn't help but wonder.

"I didn't came to talk about my face..."

And then I told him everything I had constated, without forgetting to leave the identity of my 'subject' on the side.

Sanzo Genjyo frowned, lighted another ciggie, blew the smoke to the ceiling and stared at it as if all the answers were written on it. I waited a bit, suddendly remembering I hadn't eaten anything since yesterday night. He finally spoke.

"I can't recall anything remotly similar..."

His gaze returned to the room and me in front of him.

"There have been a lot of bloodlines mutations, and if your guy isn't from a ninja clan in the beginning, there's still the possibility for a spontaneous mutation. That's all I got."

I nodded, standing up from my seat.

"Sankyu bogus."

"Die!"

I barely escaped the very thick file he throwed at me when I left.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

We created a sensation Iruka and me, when we went back at school Tuesday morning.

What surprised me wasn't the whispers barely whispered, nor the not-discreet-at-all glances toward my face turned yellow-green, nor the stares I could only qualify as ambiguous and calculating cast in my and Iruka's way, coming from various specimens of the human kind, from our classes or just passed by in the corridors. No, really, I was kinda expecting that.

The most surprising was that the king Itachi barely cast a neutral glance at us - no weird comments, no 'did that hurt, junkie?'. I wondered why he wasn't taking advantage of the oportunity thrown at him on a silver platter; but I guessed that asking that to Iruka wasn't the best idea to have now.

This lead me to wonder, Tuesday morning during the two boring first hours of class, what was Iruka and I relation... Could we being tagged as friends?

When the ring for the ten o'clock rang, I swept this ideas away from my musings, and I left the classroom.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

We were all three - 'all three' being Iruka, Zabuza and me - seated in a unfrequented area of the corridors a bit later in the week, busy doing nothing and chatting, when a black tornado rushed past us and dived into a nearby classroom ; the one which was sporting the inscription 'Newspaper'. Yeah, as in 'the high school newspaper', but here, unfortunatly for us, it's not only a rag, it's a real tabloid. Its members are full of themselves and totally unbearable, ready to put their noses everywhere.

Iruka's eyes had widdened on the tornado's path, and he had turned hs head away to follow it from sight, just enough to miss the tornado's pursuer. I recongnized him from the picture Iruka had showed me -dark hair, check, hair in the face, check- and from his description - black clothing from head to toe, check. The guy quietly making his way in the deserted corridor was Izumo Kamizuki, 'local goth leader' with his girlfriend, according to Iruka.

I deduced from that that the black tornado had been Iruka's cousine. Said Iruka spotted the newcomer.

"Izumo? What's going on?"

The called took a second to stare at me, look at my bruise and imperceptibly salute me with a nod before answering. "There's going to be bloody news if Emily isn't stopped."

He didn't seemed to have the desire to stop her. We walked closer from the now open door, and we managed, somehow or other, to fit at four in the treshold.

This was a normal-looking newspaper office, with desks, blackboards covered with notes, computers and pens. What was going on inside didn't seem 'normal'. Us excepted, there were only two people in the room: a girl, maybe the local editor in chief, seated on a normal desk chair, and an other girl, leaning so far over the other girl that they were nose to nose, smiling in a rather... weird manner, but which somehow fitted her 'classy vampire' look. With such a smile, I was close to think she was one of _us_ - it looked too much like Kodia's smile. The vampire-girl leaned forward on the other girl, murmuring a litany of threats which managed to give me shivers to her ear, shaking the arms' chair for emphasis.

"Emily?" cut Iruka. "Emily, what are you doing?"

Emily let go of her grasp on her prey and straithgned up lithly in a move that looked like a dance. I noted she was holding a copy of the newspaper. And I noted after that, hadn't I knew she was already in a relation, I would have pushed my luck even if it meant having my blood sucked to death. Zabuza put a well-aimed elbow in my ribs.

"Shut it you're drooling."

Emily and Iruka were talking in english, just the two of them. She seemed to be in a cold rage, he seemed to be completly lost. Izumo had slipped in the room, and was kepping an eye on the girl shaking in her chair.

Appartenly, what Iruka and Emily were talking about concerned the last newspaper, the one which had been released Monday. Iruka ended by taking the copy his cousin was wielding, and I came closer from him. I read the charged article over his shoulder - and suddenly I had the irrepressible urge to do like my new vampire friend, but with much less subtlity. Understand here that I would jumped the 'threat' square to go directly on the 'body harm' one. The article under my eyes was relating the 'event' of last Thursday in such a twisted way I couldn't even begin to qualify it, twisting reality to heap all the pieces of slander roaming the corridors onto the guy next to me who was finishing reading - the joints of his closed fists on the paper turning white.

Iruka rolled the newspaper in a ball after having finished reading, his teeth clenched tight , and glared death to the still sitting girl.

But he didn't say anything. He turned and left the room.

Everyone left, and I waited until just Zabuza was waiting for me at the door to got closer from the editor. I leaned forward, resting against the arms' chair, putting my mouth just against her ear.

"If I ever heard of an article such as this one again," I sighed langourously,"you can be sure I'd make a it a point of honor to put my friend's threats into the reality realm."

Then I left.

In the corridor, Emily had her arms around Iruka, and Izumo a hand on his shoulder. Izumo glanced my way before they left all three. We didn't follow them - Zabuza and me were _de trop_ for now.

"What was the meaning of all that?" he asked me, frowing.

"Apart from the fact that some people held a grudge against Iruka, I don't have the slighest idea."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO End Twelfth Part OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

_'I'm the cliffhanger whore!' Genjyo Sanzo comes from Gensoumaiden Saiyuki, welcome to him. Questions, horrors' shouts, complaints and protests welcome too._


	13. Chapter 13

**A shinobi is a high school student like another - 13**

_A huge, huge thanks to Tampopo-sensei for betaing. Sensei, I can't thank you enough._

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Saturday came both too quickly and too slowly - it depended from which point of view you were observing things.

It came too quickly for the ninja who never seemed to have enough info on the rendezvous place, and the enemy - I was one of those. And it came too quickly for the teenager who was searching for answers without finding any - and that was me too.

It came too slowly for the guy who was just waiting for a good evening-party which would maybe answer some of his questions.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

The no-longer-used warehouse turned nightclub located in the ancient industrial area, and which was the place where the meeting was planned to happen, had been under observation night and day by one team for a week already. An extra team would go to join this team once we were in position .

All the data we had on this place had been carefully gone through; surprisingly, this data wasn't part of the growing mass of info we had confirmed as falsified and/or erased. So we were sure the former bosses of this nightclub had been involved in different embezzlements and criminal affairs, from falsified tax forms, to procuring, without forgetting criminal conspiracy. The current bosses were clean - well at least they weren't suspected of anything… yet.

It was really the perfect place to illustrate the kind of world we were maneuvering in, and that the majority of the Konoha population knew nothing about.

Another team had infiltrated the place as soon as it opened , ready to and for anything, mixing with the varied customers. _I think paranoid is the word you're looking for…_ Hey, it was Sensei who was meeting the big bad wolf; even if he could get rid of it without breaking a sweat if he needed to, we might as well be ready for all scenarios - we still have a need for a future Yondaime, and preferably in one piece and good as new.

The team Sensei had chosen for the meeting was composed of the 'Infernal team' plus one. That meant that Raidou, Zabuza, Genma, Kodia and I spent all week training together; we had to get used to Kodia's combat style, and to know when and how count on each other, even if we knew it already.

The Weather Forcast Channel had announced snow for Saturday night, following the announcement was a weather alert for Konoha and the land around; thirty centimeters of fresh snow were expected downtown.

It was well past eight p.m. , and night had since long fallen on the city. It would soon be our turn to appear on the scene.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

We were going to meet the yakuza-style guys, and to beat an enemy, as well play with the same weapons as him. Sensei wanted an impressive and classy entrance.

The night had fallen on Konoha ; the city lights were reflected on the low and heavy clouds as an orange halo. The nightclub park car and the road leading to it were barely lit , far from all regularly used streets.

Zabuza - and the roaring motorbike he had choose to ride – was leading our group, closely followed by the car -my bad, by the black limo driven by Raidou, and I was watching our back on another motorbike.

The 'greeting group' was waiting for us at the car park - there were no weapons in sight. Well, either those guys were taking the whole 'neutral area' very much to heart, or they were more clever than your average villain, and had choosen concealed weapons. In any case, we hadn't been crazy enough to come unarmed. We were the weapons after all.

Zabuza and I climbed off our monsters and got closer, as the good watch dogs we were, to the limo from which Sensei, Raidou, Genma and Kodia were exiting. I noticed a nearly imperceptible movement coming from Sensei, and I knew that the two snipers hiding somewhere on the roofs around were in position. I allowed myself a smile behind my mask. I would hate for the evening to end in a free fire party, but I knew that up there, there was someone who would be pleased with this kind of turn of events, as long as he could play too.  
_  
Vincent, sorry, but I hate gunshots._

Tadaam. We were now coming straight from a yakuza movie - Sensei, Gen' (and his toothpick) and Rai' were wearing plain black suits, Kodia was wearing his without his tie and looking like he was a bit out of it, playing the part of the guy you don't pay attention to until he begin to smile with too many teeth; Zabuza wearing his uniform and bandages on the lower part of his face instead of his mask, and me in full garb were playing the good watch dogs. Discreet and nearly invisible, but there nevertheless. Raidou and Genma had slightly changed their features with a simple henge, just enough not to be recognizable later without it.

The greeting group offered to show us the way. We got inside - and our entry went totally unseen. The music was blasting, flowing over the space used as a dance floor, the multicolored lights were turning in all known ways in the cramped space. I spotted the bar, already crowded. I spotted our people too, in strategically-thoughtout positions: near the back doors, the front doors, the stairs, the bar.

We all went up, to what was pompously christened the 'VIP lounge'. The big shot was there already, waiting for us with some other people. Counting everyone, there were nine bad guys, and fifteen people in all. I quickly opened my left eye to scan the room. There were effectively fifteen chakra signatures, all different; but my scan wasn't enough to show if there were any weapons in the room along with us. Though, it was enough to show me the video camera hidden in a corner. A chakra-charged toothpick and an unseen move later, the camera was suddenly off.

The big shot stood up from behind the table and bowed to Sensei to greet him, and offered him a seat to discuss things more comfortably.

The end of this wouldn't come quickly enough. I disconnected my brain from what they were saying, letting my training take the lead and give it only the important parts.

For one, already from the bow, I could see that this guy was sticking to his traditions like a monkey falling from his tree was sticking to the branches. Most of the time, this kind of reaction was Not Good.

Two, while staying at the back of the room, I could note that three of the guys who had been waiting in the room looked a bit high. Just a little bit. This was a drug cartel, but it seemed crystal clear that the organization was taking its part of the merchandise.

It was as good a way as another to guaranty the relative loyalty of his men - as long as they could still operate under their own power and that they weren't larva yet.

The VIP lounge was built on a mezzanine floor, so as to look over the dance floor below through the large windows acting as one of the walls. I thought I spotted familiar heads under us - yeah, I could spot them easily: Kaneda and Yamagata, and others I knew only because I had seen them into the HQ's files. They had done a meteor-like stay at school and I had found them shortly after associated with a motor gang in the street. After a few seconds of careful scrutiny, I knew what was bothering me with the dancing crowd below: the only heads of a color other than black were very obviously dyed.

I cast a glance into the room at the 'villains'. They were all Asian-looking - not a mixed-looking one nor a European in sight. Our team was standing like a colorful sore thumb here, between Sensei's shining blond, Genma's fair brown, Raidou's darker one and the exotic looking ( and very mixed) features of Kodia, without forgetting my eerie silver gray hair. Only Zabuza seemed to fit in here.

We wouldn't be able to play those guys - we had been the ones played. They were not only doing drugs (and other things) traffic, but they were also from the resident extreme right. And the night club was part of their territory. I straightened slightly, catching Zabuza's attention at the other side of the room - he was used enough (too much?) to my body language to notice that something was wrong, and he straightened too. Kodia was already in alert behind his 'out of it' facade, his sense of smell had warned him of the change in my emotions.

Sensei and the big shot, who had introduced himself as Otsuka Shigeru, were still chatting. Well, to be realistic, they were exchanging diplomatically veiled threats.

To make a long story short, Mister Otsuka wished no more than to have the monopoly on the underground's business, and to achieve his goal he needed to wipe out the opposition. He was going on by saying that both of our organizations were currently fighting for the same thing , and that it would really be stupid to throw a wrench into each other works, especially given the means he had access to.

Sensei was replying to that saying that our 'organization' goal, asOtsuka had called it, was not, in any case, to allow one gang, no matter which one, to gain whatever monopoly, or to even hope to thrivie. It would really be stupid for a major settling of scores to turn into an underground war, especially given the means Sensei had access to.

Add some embellishments, some beating around the bush, some bottles of sake and a little more than one hour, and you have the whole meeting.

The way this guy was talking was making me bristle. The very well hidden insinuation were making me bristle too. Those guys were definitively far far right guys - there were sentences like 'give Konoha back its past honor' (I was really wondering what the hell this kind of sentence was fucking doing in this discussion ) that was directly implying the disappearance of the European district and of the immigrant part of the population.

I'd like to see this guy with a Konoha inhabited only by 'true Konoha people'. That would maybe leave a quarter of the inhabitants, if that ; Konoha herself, the Konoha of the ninja times, had been built by people coming from all over the countries at the time - for the purity of the original blood, we could come back later. This guy needed a good hard hit on the head, and a proper history course.

I could see that Sensei was beginning to lose his patience too; it was showing in the way he was sitting, in the way he was talking, in the way he was looking at the guy sitting in front of him.

I was scanning the room periodically , to keep the most part of my chakra if it was needed later. This was why and how I saw, before even Kodia smelled them, the ten or so thugs coming up to say hi. We hadn't been careful enough - one of the guys had to have a way of communicating we hadn't seen, and he had to have obeyed a sign of his boss's, who was looking like he was feeling he wasn't controlling the discussion anymore. I suspected one of the guys to be less high than he looked. And shit, we had been had like newbies.

I made a quick gesture, relayed by Kodia, and all our team tensed imperceptibly. Sensei stood up from the table.

"I thank you for your reception Otsuka-san, but I'm afraid our discussion, as pleasant as it is, has to end here."

The door cracked open, letting the thugs stream in, and cutting off all ways to retreat. Those guys were armed. Big Shot stood up from the table too.

"I'm terribly sorry Uzumaki-san, but given our... disagreements on the current concern, you see me forced to ... eliminate the present subject of dissension. I really appreciated speaking with you." Big shot bowed once more, then he straightened. "Get rid of those half-bloods for me."

The thugs streamed quietly into the room, getting into position. No-one of us moved. Sensei spoke up, before Otsuka-bastard stepped out of the lounge.

"You're making a mistake Otsuka-san, a deadly mistake ."

Some guy sneaked up behind me, and I felt the unmistakable cold bite of a firearm on the back of my neck, on the few centimeters left naked between the uniform's collar, my hair, and the leather straps of the mask. I hate firearms.

"Mm, pretty boy, such a shame, really a shame," he whispered to my ear, and I'd rather not get into the details of what was implied by this tone of voice.

My stomach made a back-flip.

Otsuka got out of the room, leaving his thugs get rid of us. Ah, sorry, letting us get rid of his thugs. Do I really need to give the gory details?

We did it 'neatly', quickly and well-done. The guy behind me didn't last long. Not one of those guy was a match to us, it was pitiable.

The neat lounge was suddenly a bit more messy, a bit more stained, a bit more littered. Kodia would not go to see his girl whining he was hungry tonight. The dancing crowd below hadn't noticed a thing. I could still feel the cold of the gun's mouth on my neck, and I was feeling nauseous.

We innocently climbed down the stairs, and the infiltration team wasn't in sight. Sensei frowned. We got out of the night club.

My communicator hissed, saying that two nin were following Otsuka, and that the rest of the team was at the rear with three of the thugs. Sensei ordered for them to be dragged back to the HQ and properly cooked, before we could turn them over to the police. A quick inspection of the vehicles to be sure nothing had been added to them and Vincent's confirmation that no-one had come close, and we were off on our way.

The cold was now cutting through me, and that chill slowly sliding down my spine. I was definitely nauseous.

We turned right and left, made some U-turns, before we all stopped in a junkyard bordering the former industrial area, where we abandoned car and motorcycles. We made our way to downtown Konoha like shinobi, jumping and sliding up and down from roof to roof, unseen and un-followed. We weren't crazy enough to come back to the HQ in vehicles - anyone could follow a car, but no-one could follow a shadow.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

By the time we made it to the HQ, I was all cold inside, and I had a feeling like I would puke sooner or later - and more sooner than later. Fortunately, the debriefing was quick - at least for us - and we had the authorization to leave immediately, with the advice to be more extra-careful than usual.

"Can I drop you home, or...?" asked Raidou, when we were the lasts ones standing in the car park; Zabuza had left immediately after the debriefing, and Genma's piece of junk wasn't in its place anymore.

I think I was trembling slightly at this stage. This night tasted like the ones I was ending at Rin's, hidden in her arms and sheets. But tonight, I couldn't. I didn't want to. Iruka had asked me to come at a party, and I intended to go, wanting to puke or not, cold or not.

I softly shook my head in answer.

"Thanks, but I'm going to go back to my place by foot..."

It was half past midnight, the ninja's night was ending.

It was half past midnight, the student's night was only beginning.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO End thirteenth part OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

_Kaneda and Yamagata come from AKIRA, Otsuka Shigeru is an OC, you're free to hit him and cookies for those who'll guess from where come Vincent. _

_Questions, flames and such - you know how it works. The 14th chapter should come out (more) quickly._


	14. Chapter 14

**A shinobi is a high school student like another - 14 **

_Happy new year to everyone reading, thank you and I'm very sorry about the long wait - the next one should be as long to come up ( I should have a new computer soon, so it should help speeding things a bit). _

_**Warnings :** Party, so alcohol and such, some cussing ( nothing you never heard before) and sexuals implications..._

UNBETA-ED, _feel free to drop a review to tell me how awful my english still is._

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

I made the way back walking quietly, trying to get the last hours out of my mind - and trying to smooth down the adrenaline crash. By the time I walked along my street, it was nearly one in the morning. Even if the streets were strictly deserted at a time like that in this season, I had put aside the idea to got back by shinobi-means, as in 'jumping everywhere', choosing instead means used by everyone. And this even if the outdoor temperature, which was echoing the one I was feeling inside, was very, very cold, if not on the glaciation way.

The air was smelling like snow.

As I had expected it, I've been sick. The heaves appeared two streets before reaching the address Iruka had wrote on my hand a week before. The contents of my stomach ended on the sidewalk, between a lamppost and a tagged transformer. Note to self : think about eating more - puking on an empty stomach is extremely unpleasant. I leaned against the transformer to catch back my breath when the dry heaves of my stomach finally left me in peace. I hate firearms.

I continued my way quickly. I was going to be late anyway, but it was bothering me - as if I was deceiving Iruka by arriving too late. I had just to point the exact reason as to why the idea of deceiving Iruka was upsetting me so much.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

The address was corresponding to a two-stories high house, looking rather fitting to the neighborhood, with a piece of grass in front of it and the garage on the side, the mailbox and the huge trash can sitting between the street and the lawn. Every other house of the street were looking a bit like this one, carefully nested between the trees which were acting like a border between the street and the lawns.

The lampposts here were looking brand new, but at this hour of the night, this street was looking as dead as mine. But this was forgetting one house, with the sidewalk around covered by cheap looking cars, and with all its windows lighted, making as much light as the nearest lamppost. It was the address' house.

I crossed the lawn to get to the porch, expecting the music to be used as a deterrent weapon, much like two weeks before at Anko's. Surprisingly, I could be standing in front of the door without fear for my eardrums, and I had to be very attentive to guess there was music playing inside.

I breathed deep, hoping that I had managed to look human enough somewhere between this street and the one before. I was cold. I could taste bile in the back of my throat.

I knocked on the door. A blond chick looking pretty well gone through her alcohol ratio for the night opened and made me enter.

"Hi Cutie," she said, peeking me loudly on both cheeks to say hello. "I'm Doris, and what's your name mysterious?"

She didn't let me the time to answer, opening her mouth right away after having ogled the bruise turned a faded yellow-green on my face.

"Seeing this bruise, I would say you're the Kakashi everyone talked about, wow, I think you had a death wish at the time, but I gotta admit it was a neat move to do..."

And she continued talking. I blinked. And I blinked once more. What was she smoking ? ( And where could I find some?)

The music I could hear playing was some good rock, not too loud since I could hear people talking ; I could hear some burst of voices and laughter upstairs. Doris was still talking. A guy with jet black hair and dark circles under his eyes came and saved me from the talking menace.

"Doris, they're waiting for you in the living..."

Seeing the dude's face, I could deduce he was Hayate - however, he was looking thinner and more... ar, sick, than on the picture Iruka had shown me. We shacked hands.

"Sorry about Doris, Kakashi, she tend to get chatty once drunk... The name's Hayate. You can leave your stuff into the kitchen, 't's the second door in the corridor."

I nodded. Apparently, my multicolored face was avoiding me to go into introductions - and this was kinda good. He left from where he had came in the first place, and I left toward the kitchen. With some luck, I would be able to find something to get rid of this taste of bile in my mouth. And something to warm me up too, even if this wasn't my favorite way to do it. I was cold. I hadn't seen Iruka, nor heard his voice in the ones I had heard while entering.

I had expected the kitchen to be packed - or at least, for some people to be inside. No, when I switched the light on, the kitchen was empty, some jackets were piled on a chair, opened packs of beer properly put on the table, stray empty bottles neatly lined next to the opened garbage full of chips and others cookies' papers.

I added my jacket to the stack on the chair, and I fished a beer from a pack - there was nothing stronger in sight. I was cold, and I noted when opening the bottle, that my hands were shaking. This was not a good sign. _No, not here, not now ! It's not the place to break! _I swallowed a good part of the content of the bottle in one gulp, half-choking on it. Come on alcohol, get down and do your little fire in the bottom of my guts, and warm me up a little... I don't really like this way, but it was the only one I had access to for now. I would always manage to be at Rin's before reaching the 'shake like a leaf in the autumn's wind' stage.

The noise and animation were principally coming from the first rooms I had passed when coming in, and the kitchen was on the behind of the house. Once the light was switched off in the kitchen, the corridor leading from one part of the house to the other was kinda dark and seemingly not very used - otherwise they would have let the light on. It seemed like a good place to wait for my little breaking to fade away.

There was a piece of wall between the kitchen door and an other which seemed to open on the backyard; it's where I seated myself, knees drawn up against my chest, arms around my legs and head on my knees. Another gulp emptied my bottle. I had nothing else to do but to wait some more, for the shaking to subside and for the cold to disappear - or at least, for it to go back where it was from and to stop dispersing.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

That's how Iruka found me maybe quarter an hour later - my head leaning against the wall, my legs folded in front of me, my hands playing absently with the empty bottle. The shaking had quickly stopped, but the cold had decided to settle in.

"Hey," he said once at my level, "you're okay? Doesn't look like you're, like, a party-animal..."

I raised a corner of mouth in a parody of a smile, my eye half-open.

" 'm not very sociable... I'm cold."

The second part of my answer had went out on its own, I really wonder why. Iruka crouched in front of me, frowning behind the escaped hair dancing in his face and he put a hand on my forehead; it was warm, oh so warm. I closed my eye. I was beginning to get tired too - the adrenalin from the first part of my evening was long gone from my system.

"You're freezing... you came by foot? You should have called us, we could have gave you a ride..."

"I don't have your number."

He retired his hand - _no, not yet, it was warm, and nice, and I want more warmth…_ - and made a funny little sound between a chuckle and a sigh.

"Ah, er yep, it doesn't help for sure..."

He was there, just in front of me, almost leaning on my knees, and I could feel his body warmth from where I was... My back left from its leaning against the wall, and I rested my head against his chest, putting my legs on the sides for him to be in the middle. My head was going just fine against his tee-shirt, as if it had always been its place. Iruka straightened and tensed when the contact happened, but he didn't pull over.

"Kakashi? What are..."

"I'm cold," I whispered against the material, "just some warmth please, just some..."

We stayed a bit like that, in this precariously balanced pose, just my head against his chest, his arms on his sides, mines between our bodies.

He finally relaxed, putting his arms around my shoulders, bringing warmth where the cold had first come in. I grasped the sides of his t-shirt in my clenched hands,

I sensed a tiny move, and his head was on mine. He was warm, and soft, and I could hear his heart beating steadily next to my face and it was reassuring and the cold was fading away, swept away by his warmth...

This was so right. It seemed so normal, so natural, and good. I closed my eyes, diving in this semblance of security here created, breathing in his smell and his warmth.

His hands took the place of the gun; the warmth replaced the cold.

"Ka..."

He moved his head in the same time I moved mine. In the barely lighted corridor, i was guessing more than i was seeing his eyes, his face, even at a few centimeters from mine - only a few centimeters...

I barely moved my face on, and our lips were only separated by a breath.

And then they weren't separated anymore.

Who was the first to move, who had initiated the kiss didn't mattered. There wasn't anymore cold, anymore thoughts, just Iruka and me in a corridor, and this warmth I always wanted more of. My hands left his tee-shirt to slide under it, while Iruka was sliding a hand on my uncovered jaw. It wasn't hesitant, nor light like feathers or any other bullshit written to describe a kiss. He got closer, snuggled against me, and our teeth clicked, none of the two willing to submit. He tasted like beer, and hidden behind was his own taste.

Ours lips parted like with regrets - he even managed to make me moan a little. It was this warmth I wanted ; no, who was I fooling, it was him all I wanted. He rested his forehead against mine, eyes closed. It seemed my heart only began beating again.

"I think..." he began, then he stopped, licking his lips and catching back his breath. "I think it's a bit to much busy here... I'd rather avoiding Emily stumbling onto us..."

"We could... 'carry on'... at my place, there's no-one there..." I answered to his indirect question, on the same breathy tone of voice.

He nodded against my head.

"Sounds... like good..."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Just the time to take back our jackets and all and we were both out, our breaths creating clouds in the cold air. An exchanged glance was all we needed for us to begin a mad chase in the deserted streets, to escape the cold of the night, to feel our hearts racing in our chest again. We crossed the distance between the two streets running, trying to catch each other, the temperature forgotten, laughing to each missed catch. We didn't saw the streets passing.

We were suddenly at my place, inside, the front door closed behind my back, Iruka attacking my mouth as we were still wearing anoraks. No need for lights. We shrugged off of the anoraks in front of the door, mouth against mouth, smile against smile.

I still don't know how we made to climb the stairs, but it seems we managed it since we landed quickly enough in my room - my room with its unmade bed, its rare shelves crumbling under tights rows of books, its desert-like desk, my unoccupied-like room. The only light we had was the one filtering through my window I had forgot to close the shutters to, which was upon the garden, not the lighted street. That wasn't a lot of light. Not that we needed a lot of light in the first place. It was just enough for me to guess the forms of his body, and to see his shining eyes - all we needed was touch.

Our pullovers, sweatshirts and other tee-shirts were quickly forgotten on the floor, to let way to a much more pleasant way of warming up. I didn't forgot a centimeter square of Iruka's uncovered skin, tasting the firm muscles playing under the warm and soft skin, fighting in the same time with his belt and jeans; Iruka was doing the same on his side, licking and biting every part of my body he could reach.

It was clear it wasn't the first time, for one as for the other. What was the point after all?

I wanted him, I wanted him all, I wanted him to make disappear all the cold still hiding inside. His moves, his kisses and all the moans echoing mines and other noises coming out of this delicious mouth were plainly showing he wasn't against.

I slide my hands over all his body, as if for knowing every curve, every shape. He lost his hands in my hair and I didn't kept him from doing so, letting him put my face in the open; he slide his so warm hands on all my body and I didn't kept him from doing so, letting him pass over every scar, over every mark I was bearing - the kami only know how many I got.

Our bodies weren't perfectly fitting into each other, we didn't find another reality were there was only us, it wasn't romantic nor perfect. Hey, stop reading Barbara Cartland's books or any other kind of bullshitting over sex.

It was as desperate, on both sides, and starving, and human, and hesitant, awkward, _et désespéré, affamé, hésitant et humain._

And it was so, so real.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

We collapsed on top of each other, warped around each other, the blankets thrown luckily over us after having been chucked out earlier from over the bed, the pillows gone somewhere here. I was feeling like my heart was going to jump out of my chest, and Iruka's heart was racing like mad against mine, his sweat-soaked locks clinging to his face and sprawled on my neck.

We were definitively fine. We were spent. I wasn't cold anymore. I think I had never felt as good as I was feeling right now.

Our breathings slowly steadied themselves, and very quickly, I had a sleeping Iruka in my arms. I wouldn't have exchanged my place for anything in the world.

Before my eyes closed, I saw white stains hitting my window to disappear there.

It was snowing.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo End fourteenth part OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

_'bout time they got at it... Just so you know, I'm working on the 21st chapter in french - I'm not going to stop anytime soon !_

_There is no lemon between 'real' and 'collapsed' (yet), so you're not missing anything, but you can imagine. smile innocently_

_See you all next time!_


	15. Chapter 15

**A shinobi is a high school student like an other - 15**

Thanks to every one of you guys! Forgive me if I didn't answer to every review last chapter, I'll try to answer every single one for this chapter since I'm on a holiday.

warning : UNBETA-ED and I'm just a French girl, so feel free to yell and scream at my mistakes.

'_please someone help me--take away my loneliness please someone fill me--take away my emptiness please someone touch me--take away my longing and please someone, please someone…' - Thursday, Into The Blinding Light_

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

I woke up with my face snuggled against a warm neck, my arm around a toned waist. As soon as I opened my eyes, I closed them back to enjoy best Iruka's warmth against my body, both of us curled up under a cocoon of sheets and blankets. I sank a bit more into the blankets - outside the bed, it was definitively Not Warm Enough To Get Up.

The muffled like silence, and the lazily bleak light coming from the window which couldn't light fully the room, were characteristic of days after snowfalls.

A car passed the street, making a sloshing noise. Iruka was still sleeping, breathing deep and slow - I could feel his heart beating in rhythm with his slow breathes against my face and under my hand. Peace had to feel like that.

I would have liked to stay like this some more, mind happily blank, Iruka against me, tucked in a cocoon that was protecting us from everything coming from the world, safe, but my bladder protested. I mentally groaned.

I opened my eyes for good this time, getting ready to slide stealthily out of bed to avoid to wake Iruka up. I half smiled when I saw on his neck the marks of the night - I had to have as beautiful marks as his on my neck, if not worse, if his were showing this much on his rather tanned skin. With a mud as white as mine, mines would be seen from miles away. I smiled more. And then I frowned, when my eyes fall upon the marks on his neck into the hesitant morning light. Not the kind of marks left by a crazy night of fun - those were on his neck. Those other marks, even if I couldn't see them really well right now, were definitively not marks done for fun and games. They were strangely pale against his skin, too clear, too straight - it looked like it had been done by a knife. There were others, making creased little circles into the skin, like it was burns... and I had seen enough things to know that those burns were cigarettes' burns.

What had happened to him? I frowned while silently sliding from the bed, using all my stealth's skills. As an answer to my move, Iruka sank a little deeper into the blankets to compensate the warmth I was taking away. I guess I would have to ask one day or another.

The bathroom - it would be more accurate to said 'my' bathroom - is just the door next to my room, and I never close any door inside the house - no need to close them. So there was no door to open and no noise to make.

OoO

I guess this is the right time for some explanations...

I never got headaches over trying to know in which category I had to get myself into, if I was straight, homo or bisexual. I couldn't see the interest of losing sleep over something like that - sex is sex. There wasn't much more behind. I don't think I've already said that my very dear late father - that was dripping with irony, beware of the drops - had raised me in true ninja ... 'the body is a tool', 'a shinobi is a weapon', and other sayings of the same kind.

That's to said that already in the beginning, I don't have a very classic approach of sexuality. My 'first time' so dear to cheap soppy romances had little to do with romantic and soppy feelings. It was the last thing my target ever did. The weeks that followed, Obito and Rin kept an eye on me as if they were afraid I would break like some glass figure right in front of them. It never happened.

Then... then Obito died. Ah, forgive me. Obito was killed. I think that I can say I met the bottom at that time. I did a lot of things ; a lot of fucking bad things, a lot of shit. I, namely, touched to everything that had two paws and no feathers, to use the formula Socrate used to refer to the human being... I'd rather not come back too much on this time.

Then, last year, Kurenai pushed me into the (waiting) arms of one of her friend, saying I definitely needed a girlfriend. The girl was nice and totally off her rockers. We stayed together for two months.

What exactly came out of all this? The realization that I was a human being, with feelings, emotions and desires - and also that given a choice, I like better a male sample of the human specie.

OoO

I left the bathroom, a stupid grin plastered on my face. A glance in the mirror had been enough to confirm my earlier doubts - the love bits and other marks were visible, very very visible, on my very white skin. I caught myself hoping I wouldn't have to use the showers of the lockers room at the HQ before a few days. I could already imagine Genma's reaction... and I could happily live without it.

I stepped back into my room - a bundle of clothes was oddly buzzing next to the door. I jumped on it before the phone that had to be under it began to buzz louder and wake Iruka, currently warped into the bed.

The number calling was Rin's. I breathed, and fished my boxers and jeans which had landed a long way away from the bed - I would have liked better to go back into the warm bed, but Rin never called without a good reason. I put my clothes on, trying to find a little warmth.

I gently closed the door behind me, to not disturb Iruka's sleep, and I slide down the wall to the floor into the corridor, the windows on either side of the floor as the only light. The phone was reading 9.37 am. I sighed. Last night had been... rather emotion-packed - I was gonna say it like that. The part ... more 'usual' for an eighteen years old brat had made me forget all the shit, at least for a while ; had made me forget which kind of life I was living... Rin and my 'secret life' were coming back too quickly.

Wait... since when was I thinking about my life as two separate ones?

I passed my hands on my face. I was fucking way too early to have big existential questions about my life.

I opened my phone, and called back Rin before she did. She answered at once.

"Kakashi, you're finally answering!"

"Rin, it's Sunday. As in 'no class', 'sleep as long as you can'..." I knew, just by hearing her, that she was relived.

"I... I was scared you... well, with what little Raidou told me about the night, I was worried about you."

"No need to worry _Mum_, everything's fine."

Yep, everything was damn right fine. There was someone in my bed, someone I was kinda drawn to, and who was 'drop dead gorgeous' and knew how to use it.

I wasn't going to elaborate, and especially explain that to her over the phone. She worried enough for everyone. Speaking of everyone...

"Say hello to Rai' for me," I say, with a smile I knew she would manage to hear.

I was waiting for stuttering, half-formed excuses. None of that. Her voice, over the phone, became smaller and ... more sad?

"Kakashi... Raidou and me... does... does it bother you?"

"What? No, of course no!" I was much more louder that at the beginning of the conversation, almost screaming. I continued more gently. "I'm really really happy for you two. Why do you think you being happy would bother me?"

"I... Kakashi..." She seemed ready to burst into tears - I always hated seeing or hearing her cry. "I feel like I'm betraying him..."

There was no need between us to said to who 'him' was referring. I unfolded my legs into the empty corridor, putting my head against the wall behind me.

"Rin... I don't think Obito would have liked you to live only for his memory - I think he would have wanted you to go on with your life... you to continue smile and laugh..."

I could hear her snort softly, as discreetly as she could. She was crying.

"Oh... I'm sorry Kakashi..." She made a kind of little laugh between sobs. "I'm calling you just to be consoled..."

"'T's nothing, I'm doing it to you all the time... each in turn huh? And well, you could have found worse than Rai'."

She laughed again, with more emotion.

"That's too true... See you later Kakashi... and thank you."

"See you Rin."

The line biped. I stared at the mute phone in my hands. Yeah. There was worse than Raidou around. Raidou and Rin... I was truly happy that those two had finally admitted their feelings to each other. Life was moving on. I had been totally honest to Rin, saying I was happy for them, and that she wasn't betraying anyone by continuing with her life... but it wasn't making the barely scarred wound in my heart sting less, nor wasn't it making the strange void left by Obito ache less.

The light filtering through the windows was whiter and blanker than when I had got up. Going back to bed, to Iruka, was sounding more and more like a genius' idea.

I got up from the floor, and opened the door to my room. I dropped the phone unto the bundle of clothes from which I had picked it up earlier, and walked to the bed. The only hints for the presence of one human being under the covers were the long dark tresses laying out on the pillow, and the human-sized heap of blankets.

The trembling human-sized heap of blankets. I half-sit on the bed in front of it, frowning in concern.

"Iruka?"

He didn't reply, even if he was awake - I could tell by the rhythm of his breath. Rather the rhythm of his sobs - his very soft and very restrained sobs. I reached for the blankets hiding him. He curled up on himself at the touch, tensing.

"Iruka... what's wrong?"

Tears were running freely and silently on his tanned cheeks, barely pausing at the edge of the scar. I was totally at a loss in front of his tears. What was wrong?

"Are you too going to beat me?"

I nearly missed his voice, lost in the silent sobs and muffled as it was by the blankets around. My eyes widened, and my heart skipped a beat. What the hell?

"What? What'cha talking 'bout? I won't hurt you!"

Tears ran even more. I laid in front of him to be able to look at him in the eyes - his chocolate warm brown eyes. His closely shut eyes. I gently slide my hands on either side of his face, very very gently when he tried to recoil from the touch, and I wiped his tears with the tips of my thumbs. I didn't know what to say, what to do. It hurt to see him like that.

"Iruka... tell me... tell me what I have to do..."

He opened his eyes - they were red and puffy - and I don't know what he saw on my face, but the next moment he had buried his face against my chest and slang his arms tightly around me ; and I could feel the dampness of his tears against my bare skin. I put my arms around him, running gently a hand along his spine... I think... I think I didn't really need to ask to know where the marks on his back were from.

I held him for a long time, almost rocking him.

"'m sorry..." he said against my chest. I had thought he had gone back to sleep, curled against me. I wouldn't have mind.

"Huh? Sorry about what?"

He buried his face a little more against my chest. I passed my hand through his hair, aware that he wasn't going to answer.

"Iruka... you know... if you need anything... if you just need to talk about anything... 'm willing to listen - I'm not in position to judge anyone about anything."

The atmosphere had taken a way too serious and heavy turn. Where had gone the peace from earlier? It wasn't exactly like that I had thought about, when thinking of spending morning-turning-midday with Iruka. Truth to be told, I hadn't thought about it at all. I traced his jaw line with ghost-like kisses.

"What do you think of breakfast in bed, hum?"

I felt him smile.

"We could get up too..."

It was my time to smile.

"Aah, I don't think so... I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to eat... kitchen hold stuff so _diverting_ when used right..."

"You perv."

I smiled, not caring I wasn't hidden behind a collar or anything else. He smiled too, before I put my lips on his in a chaste kiss that turned not so chaste.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

When I climbed back up with a tray I had found back kami-only-knew-how, heavy with fruit juice, cookies and not quite too dry bread, Iruka was sitting up, a frame in hand. I took me a second before I recognized it, the time to put the tray in a hazard balance on the bed. I was so used to see this particular frame that I wasn't really noticing it anymore.

I put my chin on his bare shoulder, to look at the picture in his hands, as if seeing it for the first time.

Almost everyone was on this pict... I didn't even remember when it had been taken. There was Obito, and Rin, Raidou, Genma, me in the middle. There was Tsunade too, and yes, the thing in Sensei's arms was Naruto. I smiled against the warm skin.

"... It's your family?"

"In a way... I don't have any picture of my parents."

I named every person in the picture, just as he had done for his picture a week earlier - speaking about them with warmth, describing Genma and his bullshit, Naruto and his unconditional love to ramen. I never had the opportunity to share this before. Iruka listened to me, smiling. And then he gently put back the frame over my bed.

His hand on my face caught me by surprise - he slide his fingers along my discovered jaw line, along my lips. I tensed when he slowly treaded his fingers with the gray locks falling in my face.

"Kakashi... can I?" he asked. An instant passed. Then I slowly nodded. He had already seen yesterday - or very early this morning. Why bother with continue to hide it... I closed my eyes.

He gently pushed aside the locks hiding the left part of my face. I heard him gasp. I knew what he was seeing. From the cheekbone to the eyebrow, the skin was irregular, a mess of pinkish scar tissues - it looked a bit like Raidou's visible burns' scar on his face, but fire hadn't been the cause. It had been chakra. There were also scars of cuts which had badly healed - cuts done by the mask which had exploded upon impact. In the middle of all this was running a single straight sharp-looking scar - a surgical scar.

I opened both eyes to look at the man in front of me. His eyes widened. I knew what he was seeing now too : a light gray eye on the right, a demonic red eye on the left - Obito's last present to me.

"What... what happened?"

I took his hand in mine, letting my hair fall back in place, and then I gave him a lopsided grin - as if saying 'it's nothing'.

"A fight that went ugly, it's nothing..."

I could say myself that my voice hadn't sounded right. I put the tray over our knees.

"Breakfast?"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

It was only later, when we finished fighting with the finally too dry bread, and that we made it to the bathroom for what supposed to be only a quick shower - how could I have kept my hands for me? He got pretty muscles everywhere, and a toned body... - that I realized that I had deliberately broken the orders issued to him three years ago.

All right, it had become less and less of an order, and more and more of a personal choice, and beside I was hiding my eye from everyone - even Zabuza didn't know, and he was my teammate.

But now Iruka had seen it...

Seems like he was important enough.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo End fifteenth part oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo


	16. Chapter 16

**A shinobi is a high school student like another – 16**

Note I forgot to put earlier: Kakashi's face's description and what happened are NOT canon.

(Nine-tailed-Vixen, did you got my mail with this chapter? It seems like Hotmail failed me once more...) So that's to say that this chapter is not betaed and so is filled with mistakes since I'm only a French girl trying to speak english. Sorry about the time it took me to update this one, but I was expecting my mail to work... the 17th should be up sooner.

_italic speech :_ People speaking english since it's not Konoha official language.

Oooooooooooo

The hot water was pouring down on my tired muscles, threatening to turn me into a big puddle of goo in the middle of my shower and emptying my mind… And it was only Sunday night. I still had troubles believing that a few hours earlier, I was in the same spot, but with Iruka.

Iruka…

The marks on his back… most were barely visible, just pale hair thin scars on his golden skin. And there was the other, the still pinkish and a bit swollen scar, large as my hand, exactly in the middle of his back, but a few centimeters from his spine. Those scars were looking what? Three, four years old? Maybe less for the larger. And then, the burns – those were looking really less old…

Who? Who had did this to him? And why? Scratch the last question. I f I could get my hands onto the guy who had did this to him, I would certainly not try to know why. I would rather make him experiment a world of pain.

I let my thoughts frolic happily and the pressured water drown my face, flattening my hair on my head.

Those marks… had they something to do with his obvious capacity to sense chakra? Or not? Ha d they something to do with what had told me Kotetsu… 'he've seen enough shit'? May be was there a direct link between the scars and his ex, or ex-s…

That could explain the question that had rather badly disturbed me – you're going to beat me too? – and the end of the morning.

Oooooooooooo

Iruka had used the 'puppy eyes no jutsu' on me so that I would see him home ; I yielded, what were you expecting me to do. So we walked from my place to his, first in streets covered with fresh snow, then into streets covered with less and less fresh snow as we were coming into the city and as the snowplows were working, pushing the snow away from the road onto the sidewalks. A few hours from here, and fresh snow would only be found on roofs.

When we finally made it to his place – he had took the opportunity to show me that there was a backdoor going directly to the stairs without needing to go into the pub – his place wasn't empty. His cousin and Izumo were there, and they were obviously waiting for him. Well… Emily was waiting for him with a head that wasn't looking like good news while Izumo was sleeping with his eyes open – someone had got a bit too much beer yesterday.

Iruka froze in his track in the threshold of his door when he saw them seated on his bed; and when I looked over Iruka's shoulder to know what was going on, Emily's face fall – it was sounding even worse, if such a thing was possible.

Everything stopped for a very short instant, during which Iruka seemed to review very seriously his options, to see if he could close back the door and ran for his life – truth to be told, it was what I was thinking. And then finally, Emily, now looking murderous with her make-up having ran down her face, spoke.

" 'Ruka, get in and close the door. The other get in too."

I confirmed it sounded Not Good at all. I stepped in after Iruka in the now crowded apartment, and he closed the door just before his cousin rose from the bed and stuck repeatedly a finger in his ribs, all the while screaming loud enough to wake Izumo.

_"Do you have any fucking idea of how worried I've been?! You just disappeared like that without telling anyone, and now you pop out of nowhere with 'that'!"_

_"Emily, stop screaming please, and don't call him 'that'!..."_

_"Yeah, 'cause 'that' understand pretty well all that you're screaming."_

My words threw a blank into the screaming contest Emily was threatening to win. My 'vampire friend' turned 'banshee' overnight turned toward me, and the threat choose another target; me, evidently.

"Don't you think it's taking the 'family protection' a bit far? Iruka's a grown-up, no? I don't see where's the matter…' Ah. I think I would have had a better time choosing to suddenly turn mute at the moment, seeing the very deathly death glare Emily shot at me.

"That's it exactly, you don't see where's the matter, you don't see anything, you don't know anything…"

"Emily!"

Emily's head turned suddenly to Iruka who had just shot her name. His fists were tightly shut.

"Stop that, it's enough."

She turned back toward me. She was breathing hard, as if to avoid bursting into tears.

"What did you tell him? You got him drunk? You got him as you wanted?"

My eye widened briefly under the shock – it felt like a blow this accusation, with all she was implying – before narrowing in anger. What did she wanted, and who in the hell did she think she was?

Iruka reached for her arms and shook her.

"Are you gonna stop! He didn't do anything, you hear! If you want to give responsibilities, it's as much me as him! Stop it!"

He was looking close to tears; or ready to hit her. Izumo, who everyone had forgotten, put his arms around her, and took her away from us two. Emily's anger seemed to crack once in her man's arms. She began to sob freely. Iruka lowered his gaze and turned away from her.

"I…" he began softly. "I understand you worry Emy…"

Emily was sobbing without seeming to be able to stop into Izumo's arms; what she was trying to say was cut by tears.

_"I… I don't want … to ever… ever, ever see you like you were **then**__ again…"_

"It won't happen again Emy, never again."

Izumo seemed to follow, and to understand what was going on. Me, I was totally out of the loop – the only thing clear, was that I wanted to go and hug Iruka ; and maybe getting outta here. But Iruka made the move first; he gripped the back of my sleeve, and got closer from me. I looked at him, probably looking as lost as I was feeling; but he only shook his head at my unspoken question, and got a bit closer.

Emily couldn't stop crying – from Doc Kakashi, this was a nervous breakdown, or something close. Maybe was she simply exhausted. She seemed to have spend the night up worrying. It was Izumo who had the last word though, staring straight at me from behind his dark hair, before he stepped out of the apartment, half-carrying his girlfriend.

"I hope I'll never hear weird stuff about you."

There was a long, long silence once they left. Nothing moved for a few moment, then Iruka sighed, shrugging off jacket and pull-over.

"I'm sorry you had to witness this."

I think I was still wearing the 'didn't understand anything' expression on my face, and Iruka's apology didn't help one bit.

"What was 'this' exactly?"

Iruka didn't reply. I stepped closer from him.

"I don't understand – explain to me, please…"

Iruka just shook his head. He was a bit kinda like me, really. He was hiding… - no, he was hiding himself. He wouldn't tell me anything, not right now. Maybe later – maybe not. I just nodded.

What happened after is none of your concern. And no, we didn't spend our time playing rabbits you dirty minded people!

Oooooooooo

I made my head go from right to left, so that the hot water would go everywhere on my very aching back – there was little doubt about my state of stiffness by tomorrow, Sensei had not pulled his punches…

Hey ho, calm down your over-reactive imaginations…

I went to the HQ to take the temperature, and Sensei was so stressed up that I asked him to have a little one on one match. In the process, we pooled up all the well-named team, and we happily brawled. What do you want… that's kinda efficient as a stress reliver.

The less fun stuff when I got to the HQ, was that it had been confirmed to the info dept. that weird underground moves had began between 1am and the time HQ got the info – 7 am. Orders had been immediately assigned, but they were pretty much all saying the same : stay on guard and keep your eyes open. Sarutobi had his Bad Day's face when he said it, and that added to the simple fact that Sensei between all people was stressed was enough for my internal alarm to blast "Bad Day, Danger, Bad Day!".

I had a feeling like we were going to have some interesting days. Weeks. Months. Maybe even years.

I rubbed my neck under the hot spray to try to make the stiffness go away ; and the move brought back the after-training/brawl in the forefront of my mind. I could have done without.

Who say "we happily brawled and hit each other senseless we're happy we stink like skunks" say a visit to the lockers is in order. Particularly a visit to the shower part of said lockers room.

The only problem, was that not only had I the hits I got myself during training, but also other marks – this night's marks, on my neck and further down. And they were very very exposed. This was Teh occasion for Genma.

" 'Kashi? Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?"

"I don't want to know."

"Ha ha! Denying of the evidence! Which is evident thought!"

Raidou got into the locker room at this moment, as I putting back a not-too-dirty-and-smelly T-shirt on and as Genma was making a fool of himself in front of me and in a towel.

"You're loud Gen'…"

"Lookie lookie Rai'!"

"Hey!" Genma had gripped the back of my collar to show the marks.

"If that's not obvious proofs – he can't have got those this afternoon! It's love bites! But that's weird, he doesn't look more relaxed than before… Never mind, my little Kakashi became a real man!"

On those words, the creature and public enemy n°1 of tranquility named Genma hugged me to death all the while making stupid sounds usually used by young parents confronted to their brat's first steps.

" 'the hell? Leave me alone Gen- Eho, get lost! Raidou, help!"

"Gen', you're choking him…"

"Tell everything to Uncle Genma! What's her name? Is she cute? Is she an uniform-wearing high school girl?"

I was on the edge of strangling myself hearing that. Zabuza slipped his head out of one streaming shower, one inexistent eyebrow raised.

"What? Don't tell me you did the goth?!"

"Are you out of your mind!" I choked, still assaulted by the Genma. Emily's face of this morning came back with a vengeance – there, paf, straight between my eyes.

"The goth? Tell me everything Kashi-I, tell meee!!"

It was even worse than I could have thought this morning.

I put my forehead onto the cold tiles of the shower. Bad Day – no, sorry, shitty after-waking-up. I would have had a better time staying in bed with Iruka this morning.

And thinking about that was leading me to think about something else – I think I should stop thinking sometimes, my brain would be grateful- : how… 'to be', 'to act', what behavior to have… well shit, you got it, with Iruka at school tomorrow?

And also… what were we exactly?

I hit my head against the tiles before trying to drown myself into my shower – it was confirmed that I should freeze my cognitive processes sometimes.

Ooooooo end 16th part oooooooooooo

Feel free to point out my mistakes so I'll try not to make them again.

Musical Background: Janus 'Vater'


	17. Chapter 17

**A shinobi is a high school student like another - 17**

_A huge thank you to Nine Tailed Vixen who betaed this chapter (and is betaing the following ones) - I hope your exams went well!_

oooooooooooooooooo

I didn't have the time to think about Iruka and me this Monday morning, since the door to the French class closed just after my ass. I got to school late - again- because of a wake up call which I missed. At least, I had my clothes on. No, seriously, one of these days I'd be so late that I would ran to catch my bus clad only in my boxers. Could the peanut gallery stop laughing please?

Iruka's eyes were hidden behind his hair but he smiled at me and I smiled back at him before the teacher breathing down my neck urged me to sit in the first seat available.

The ten o'clock break couldn't come quickly enough. This morning, it seemed that an eternity passed before I could finally unfold my skeleton and get out to breathe. I was still aching from yesterday's training, and Zabuza knew it, given how he was looking at me with a smirk.

"Still feeling the after effects of Sensei's attempt on your life?"

"Eh," I said, making my vertebrae pop back into place, "If sensei had been serious, I'm sure wouldn't still be here to complain about it..."

"That's the point of saying 'attempt'..."

We hadn't taken two steps out of the classroom into the corridor when Emily appeared in front of me, hands on her stripped knees, breathing short - a sure hint she had run to our classroom.

" 'Akashi... I wanted... I wanted to..."

"Er, breathe Emily, I'll still be there in a second."

She made a strange face, her head still lowered, but she waited 'til her breathing got back to normal. Then she rose her head and face in all her vampiric glory, and stared at me straight in the eye, totally uncaring of who could be around, namely Zabuza, an eyebrow raised out of what I could now identify as interrogation and curiosity.

"I wanted to apologize for yesterday, I had no right to talk to you like that, and to yell at you, and I'm very sorry I lost it like I did," she said in one breath.

I smiled at her. "Well, a part of that is our-my fault really..."

She smiled back at me. ''...Oh, if you don't know where to go at lunch, our table is always free to new members... See you!''

And she left, easily drowned into the dark shades of the cloaked high school masses.

Iruka had got out of the class to the ''See you'' of his cousin, and got closer from where Zabuza and I had froze.

''Is there a problem?''

Zabuza turned toward me, an expression of the most certainty painted on his face.

''You did the goth.''

''Are you going to stop with that or what!?''

Iruka was choking himself with laughter behind.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

I really curse teachers and their habit to assign work over work the one week just before the holidays. It never fails. It was not only stressful, but it was also keeping me from having a moment of quiet with Iruka, since he was working at the ten o'clock break, at lunch break, at the 3p.m. break... Maybe had I to work a bit too, but right at the moment it was mostly bothering me since I couldn't find the time to talk to him.

Well, okay, what I had to say was maybe not fit to be told at school, but it was bothering me; much in the same fashion that wanting to kiss him had bothered me all day Monday 'til we met at the end of the lunch break into the toilets behind the library – the ones no-one used - where we spent the last minutes of the break kissing each other senseless. We had a fright when the door half-opened, but the person behind didn't step in and left before being able to see anything. I thought I saw long dark hair -_cough_Itachi_cough_-, but it could have been a trick of the light.

That was to say how it was bothering me, though I'd like to note that the toilets were his idea.

I wanted to ask him where we were standing. The toilets' episode had given me some hints, but I wanted to talk to him anyway. I was hoping that talking would help me understand what had happened to make his friends so protective of him.

It was weird, truth to be told, that I was thinking so hard about all that... I hadn't done it while I was with the girl from last year.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

It began to snow again as we were exiting school Tuesday late afternoon.

''Fuck,'' I said, as the last bus disappearing at the end of the street.

''You said it,'' agreed Iruka.

We had stayed late in our last class to finish work, late enough for us to miss the last bus.

''I should have thought of taking an umbrella, I'm gonna catch my death before getting home,'' I muttered to myself.

''You'll just have to come to my place then, it's closer.''

I turned toward Iruka. He had his face lifted toward the sky, watching the light gray clouds which were throwing their snowflakes at us. He smiled imperceptibly.

''And we'll manage to find an umbrella if you really want – I'm not working tonight,'' he added lower.

''Sounds like a plan,'' I smiled.

That was an opportunity made of gold I wasn't about to drop.

We walked for a good twenty minutes before arriving in sight of the European district, and we felt every single second of those minutes. They were very cold and wet. We entered in the blessedly warm and dry ''Ocean's Shore'' by the backdoor. Iruka opened the door leading to the pub just enough to catch his uncle's eye and nod to him.

This time, there was no surprise guest in his place. He dropped his bag under the kitchen counter, mine following closely. He had just shrugged off his jacket and pull-over, his hair mussed in his face in a definitely very sexy way, his cheeks still flushed by the cold, when he said, " Shower?"

I closed the space between us, lips against lips, my clothes joining his quickly on the floor.

"How could I say no to such an invite?"

"Your hands are cold..."

"Warm them up for me then..."

What do you want? We're both teenagers. His shower was just large enough for both of us to fit in, and soon his small bathroom was full of stream...

When we got out of the shower, a long while after, we realized that putting our clothes back on was out of the question - they were still on the floor, and were still cold and wet. We hung them as well as we could on his desk chair and kitchen counter.

''Hm," made Iruka, sizing me up, his hair sliding wetly on his golden skin, "I could lend you some clothes if you want..."

His place was warm enough to be able to walk around with just a towel on. I said so, from where I was sitting on his bed. I noted somewhere in my mind that he could not have not noticed all the scars running everywhere on me, between the bathroom and the lights on everywhere in his place, but he hadn't said anything, nor did he stare.

"You won't come complaining to me when you'll be freezing your ass off in a second," he answered, loosening the towel that was slipping past his hips and sneaking into his half made bed.

I leaned down on him, leaving my towel where it decided to stay. And then finally, we found ourselves warm under the sheets, my arms around him, his head against my shoulder.

The snow was still falling down behind the window.

My hand slid innocently on every detail in their reach. He began to laugh.

"You're tickling me!"

"Sorry, can't help it, you're good enough to eat... you in a sport team?"

He stopped laughing - I could even feel the change of mood; he suddenly tensed in my arms.

"I _was _in the high school volley team. I left two years ago."

"Sorry if I..."

"Don't be, it's nothing..."

There was a blank. His still wet hair was beginning to drip water on me.

"Can I ask you... why? Why you left the team?"

He took his time to answer, his eyes half-shut. "The marks, on my back... not very discreet in the lockers."

The silence was less tense than before. Being here doing nothing was calling for laziness to settle in. Iruka had his eyes closed when he spoke again.

"You should tell your parents where you are, no?"

"I'm living on my own Iruka."

He opened his eyes, frowned and lifted his head from my shoulder just enough to look at me, seemingly not understanding. I elaborated.

"My father died ten years ago, and I've got no memories of my mother."

It was really the first time that I had no problem saying that, and saying it out of my own will. Iruka was silent. I continued.

"Remember the picture I showed you? The blond guy is my guardian."

He fell back against me and hugged me tight, his face hidden in my shoulder. His voice came out muffled.

"I am sorry..."

"... don't be... I'm going to sound heartless, but I prefer things to be that way."

How many times I had though about what could have happened if my father hadn't gutted himself ten years ago, about what could have happened to me. I would certainly not have been here with Iruka. I would since long gone crazy. I would never have accepted Obito, and I would probably have got killed on this mission. I had never dared say it to anyone, even if I thought Sensei knew parts of it.

I could feel Iruka had no idea what to think or to say.

"I didn't want to make you uncomfortable, sorry," I said, kissing the top of his head.

It seemed he put the last moments in a corner of his mind. He lifted his head back from my shoulder.

"You're weird."

"And proud to be," I replied, kissing him.

OoO

A bit later, when we got back into dry clothes, we ended agreeing that, yeah, maybe it was time to begin the homework we had for the next day. Iruka was sitting on my lap, I had my chin on his shoulder and my arms around his waist, notebooks, books and exercises spread on his desk, closely followed by empty cookies' boxes and equally empty bottles.

"... and there, I had told you!"

"I would have never thought about something so twisted to resolve that... spill, what's your IQ?"

"No idea - I never tested. But I've only been in school for three years."

Iruka twisted around enough to look at me.

"Just three years? You're joking, right?"

"No," I shrugged a half-shoulder, "I was home-schooled."

With a rather loose definition of home-schooling I might add. Iruka shut back the algebra textbook.

"That explains why I never saw you before high-school."

I "mhm"-ed in his shoulder. Night had fallen, the passing of time not impeding in the slightest the snow fall. The snowflakes were dancing in the light of the lampposts below in the street, and they were piling down mercilessly along the rim of the window, behind us, above the bed. We could hear the sounds coming up from the pub below, the murmur of the conversations and the low bass of the music muffled by one story. I had no desire to go sleep anywhere else.

A low buzzing came from my bag, lying at the same place as where I had dropped it when we came in. Fuck. I tried to hide into Iruka's shoulder. The buzzing came up once more.

"Hey Kakashi, isn't that your phone?"

I made some kind of noise in his shoulder, sounding a bit like "grmffuckyeah", then I sighed before leaving Iruka to get up. The bag buzzed angrily. I fished my phone from its dark recesses and opened it - the screen was showing "Shiranui Genma..."

"Hatake."

_"Finally! Get your ass down here Hatake, there's bad news coming up!"_

"... You've seen what's like outside?"

_"...What's happening to you? Are you stoned? Oh, I get it, you're with your girlfriend! Sorry to disturb you, but there's an emergency meeting, you'll go snuggle later..."_

And I hung up on him. What a shitty timing. I stared an instant at the closed phone, nibbling on my lower lip. There was a plastic noise behind me, and a chair dragged on the floor. I turned to the desk - Iruka had got up to throw out the empty boxes and bottles. I scratched at my head. What could I tell him?

"Iruka? I... I got to go."

Okay, I admit it was pretty pathetic. He just nodded, avoiding my eye.

"Okay."

The silence stretched uncomfortably while I was getting back up. My pull-over was still sprawled across the counter, disagreeably wet to the point I was tempted to dare the weather and run to the HQ with just a tee-shirt under my jacket. A thick and dry jumper appeared in my vision field, Iruka at its other end.

"You'll get it back to me tomorrow."

"Thanks a lot."

I missed his hand when I took the garment.

"Iruka..."

He had his back to me, busy straightening out his school stuff. He didn't turn when I put the jumper on, nor when I zipped shut my bag and put it on my back. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore; I got to him, grabbed him and took his face between my hands to kiss him. He answered to the kiss after a second of surprise, and suddenly the very relative silence wasn't so uncomfortable anymore.

"See you tomorrow then," I said, when we broke the kiss and I could breathe again.

He just nodded before claiming back my lips.

I was about to open the door when he asked: "Can I ask you a question?"

I turned toward him.

"Sure."

Iruka looked me straight in the eyes. "Are you in a gang?"

I couldn't help myself but I snorted.

" 'would rather be quite the contrary. See you tomorrow."

On a last half-smile, I stepped out and climbed down the stairs to soon find myself outside.

I glanced at my watch under the pale light of the lampposts - barely seven p.m.. I sighed. I was afraid I had said too much to Iruka already, but if he asked me what I was doing, I wasn't about to lie to him. I wanted him to trust me; and I wanted me to trust him. I shook my head and walked down the street. If I was beginning to think like that now, I was in a bad way.

The snow was still coming down.

OoOoOoOoO End chapter 17 OoOoOoOoO

Musical background for the translation: my everyday train ride, school and Janus 'Vater'.


	18. Chapter 18

**A shinobi is a high school student like an other - 18**

_A thunder of applause to Nine Tailed Vixen, betareader extraordinaire. Thank you, and thank you all out there who keeps on reading and reviewing._

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Once out of sight of any potential witnesses, I climbed on a roof with the help of a drainpipe. I began jumping and running from roof to roof, too quickly to be seen by an untrained eye, to reach the HQ as soon as possible. Gen' was a fucker when he wanted to be, but he never called without a good reason. None of them did. If he was saying there was bad news, seeing the current situation, to know stuff the earliest was for the best.

The temperature had dropped once more - enough for the city to wake up as an ice rink by tomorrow. Iruka's sweater was welcomed with each passing minute.

Genma was pacing in front of the main door, waiting outside. He had to be either stressed or irritated - he hates cold. I landed in front of him. He had a bandage on his cheek.

"You're finally here. C'mon, Yondaime's in the meeting room."

I fell into step behind him, going inside the very busy building - this activity was weird for this time of the day, but this kind of 'weird' had become the usual for all departments since the hack of our system, and Saturday's 'meeting'.

"What happened to you?" I asked, briefly indicating his cheek.

He rubbed lightly at the bandage in what seemed to be an unconscious move.

"The two guys we caught Saturday finally spilled what they knew today, and they talked about a place used as a rendezvous, or a hide-out -well, anyway, Terry and I went to check it out. The place was a bar on one of the streets under the underground's rule. The problem was that the back of the place was a fucking fight-club. Our faces didn't please the guys there, and they got us out a bit violently. Fuck, you should have seen it! There were guys with arms twice as big as my fucking thighs! If it had been one of them who had hit me, I'd be dead for sure!"

We walked past still lighted and used offices, and past uniformed squads going up and down from lockers and training rooms. Kodia nearly bumped into us at a corridor's crossing - he was going down to the meetings rooms too.

There are many rooms used as meeting rooms in the HQ, used depending on the people coming and of what we wanted to show them - or to let them see. The one we were going to was a 'hidden' one, used when confidential stuff was exposed, or when dangerous missions involving the best were planned or, as tonight seemed to be, to have crisis meeting.

Entrance was restricted - the door opened only with fingerprints and chakra influx.

The upper crust of HQ was there, understand every head of ninja department and 'undercover' agents working in the government: Sarutobi of course, as 'head of head', Sensei, and behind him Zabuza and Raidou, Tsunade and Shizune, Ibiki, various heads of departments, others dudes I had never worked with. Vince was in a corner with another sniper. I thought I saw the head of the Computing section, also known as 'King Geek'; even Sanzo was out of his den.

A guy I had never seen before caught my attention, and he was doing everything in his power to do so - who in his right mind would have hair of such a flashy blood red color?

Sensei nodded to us, and Gen, Kodia and me went behind him with the rest of the team. Zabuza glanced my way - it smelled like an after-meeting chat. My parka was open - no time to shrug the uniform on and it was warmer inside than outside.

Sarutobi coughed, and the last discussions died down at once. He spoke from his seat, frowning, and suddenly he appeared old to me. It hurt.

"As everyone here knows, the underground's movements have increased lately - I would even go as far as saying we're facing a crisis."

There had been no move, no surprised gasp, no hurried murmurs, though this was the first time it was said officially and out loud - every single person here knew this already. Sandaime continued.

"We've had rather worrisome news over the last few hours - and this, without speaking about the hack of our database, which turned out to be far more thorough and deep than we first thought. The Police Computers' system has also been targeted."

The following silence was tense. It was definitely bad. This entire story was beginning to stink like death.

Sandaime gestured to the red-haired guy - re-christened Carrot Top.

"Agent Mattura, if you please..."

Carrot Top stood up. His eyes were of a blue too pale to be natural.

"Agent Reno Mattura, of Internal Security, directly under Fugaku Uchiha's orders. I work for ANBU since my assignment to this post. To keep it short, I work as a bodyguard to Uchiha - verification of his mail, both work and private, verification of the people he meets, that kind of stuff. We get at least a good five death threats a week, and an assassination attempt every couple of months."

This guy had a rather interesting life - I was speaking as much of Uchiha as of Agent Reno... Hey, wait a second, how came Itachi was in a public high school then? If his sire was under that much surveillance, then all of his family had to be under the same treatment - and a public high school wasn't looking like the best place to be secure to me. Zabuza frowned at his side - I could have bet that he had ended stumbling onto the same question as me. Reno continued.

"The letter we received this very morning was the same as any other death threat - but this one was signed."

The large screen behind Sarutobi switched on - the picture of a letter was projected on. There was a zoom, and the signature could easily be read by everyone.

Sensei tensed, and the whole team behind, and me, too, more or less managed to control his reaction. Kodia growled low in his throat.

"It had been given by a courier – with no tracking number. This afternoon at 1552, the vehicle habitually used by Uchiha exploded in the government car parks. At 1718, an explosive mechanism got blown up by a bomb squad in front of the Uchiha's household. Those two attempts were claimed by this mail."

Sarutobi spoke again. "My thanks you Agent Mattura, Ladies and gentlemen, it seems to me that the message here is pretty clear."

Talking went on for a few minutes, and then finally only the heads stayed behind. The team followed Sensei, but we couldn't get out quickly enough for my tastes. The name of the one who had signed this letter seemed to laugh at us, staying quietly on the screen.

_Otsuka Shigeru_

Sensei gathered us up in his office, visibly stressed. He ended turning toward Zabuza and me.

"I want the both of you to keep an eye on Uchiha Jr. at school – if I'm not mistaken in saying that he's in some of our classes?"

"No."

Zabuza only shook his head.

"Then you can go. I'm putting another team on his tracks for when he's out of school."

We saluted with a brief nod before leaving. I passed a hand over my face. Great. Wonderful. Of all the things that could have happen... I sighed hoping to be discreet.

"I'm seeing you home," said Zabuza.

"It's on the other side of the city...," I said, a bit surprised.

"It's that or you freezing in place..."

The car park had been deserted by human life, and was now a reserve for mechanical life. Zabuza folded his frame behind the wheel of a bright new looking car.

"Huh? That's not your car."

"No, it's Haku's - come on, climb on, I don't have all night."

I obeyed without another word. The streets were empty - seeing the temperature, it was normal; then again, after 9 p.m. a night in the beginning of the week, in winter, there wasn't often people out. I slouched a bit more into my seat, my thoughts going to the next problem at hand. I ended passing both hands over my face all the while sighing, noticing two things in the move: I smelled Iruka's shampoo, and his sweater could easily be seen as my parka was wide open.

"And now we got to baby-sit the King... this guy can't stand my face..." I mumbled.

"You did something to him?"

"Seems like he just can't stand my existence, that's all..."

But Itachi had become strangely indifferent to my existence since I was with Iruka - since I had began to hang around him, truth to be told. _Sigh_, another mystery on us... The silence coming from the driver was rather uncharacteristic. And then he spit it out.

"How come you got Iruka's sweater on your back?"

The question took me aback. I had forgotten about Zabu-man's very good memory - he had had to have recognized the sweater as soon as I had stepped into the meeting room. At the same time, I think there's only one guy in all Konoha who got a sweater with a print of a tribal-style dolphin.

"Huh?"

"C'mon, you're not gonna tell me you didn't go to the gorgeous goth who stole your heart...?"

"Gorgeous? Aren't you supposed to be gay, you...? And why would I have Uchiha's cousin's sweater on me?"

"You know…clothes... in the middle of the action..."

The face made by the guy behind the wheel needed no subtitles. I rolled my eyes, the move totally lost into the darkness of the car - public light had to be rethought entirely.

"Geeze, how many times will I have to tell you... she got a man already, I don't steal girlfriends from anyone and I didn't do anything to her! You get special courses from Genma to say stupid things or what?"

"Hey, I was just joking - especially since I've got a feeling like we're not about to laugh a lot now..."

"...you said it...," I sighed again.

The rest of the short trip was spent in silence. I was feeling empty, tired, and suddenly too old - or suddenly too young.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

My street was dead, buried six feet under layers of darkness and silence. The house seemed to loom hazardously over the road, as if waiting for its prey to pass in its reach, as looking like a monster straight out of a legend... Zabuza stopped next to the mailbox which read 'Hatake' - the name unreadable and invisible in the street light, the thin ray of orange coming from the lamppost adding to the place's hostility.

"See you tomorrow."

"Yeah…unfortunately… 'tomorrow."

I slammed the door shut, and Zabuza left, the purring of his car soon lost into the heavy silence of the street.

I walked to the front-door only when the silence settled in. I was going to go directly to bed - no desire to do anything else.

I didn't want to sleep here tonight. The door opened without a sound, and closed in the same fashion. I wanted to go back to Iruka's. I climbed up the stairs without switching on the light - what was the point? Everything was always at the same place. I would have even gone to Rin's, but I decided to leave them to be all lovey-dovey - and me sleeping in Rin's bed with them wasn't the definition of 'lovey-dovey'. I let my things fall on the floor as they will, my clothes landing here and there - but not Iruka's sweater. I wanted to go to his place, and not into a house that's not even haunted - not anymore. My room was cold, my sheets were frozen; I must have forgotten to put the heater on when I left this morning. I curled around his sweater, my nose into the hood, my nose into his odor still in the material. This house had never really been my home I could feel that with a painful accuracy tonight, more so than usual.

My stomach wailed. It wasn't important - when had I eaten last? Not this morning, not at lunch - Iruka's cookies were all I had in my stomach since... I had forgotten to eat last night too... It was nothing, and not important enough for me to get up now. I had spent longer without eating more than cookies, and it had never hindered me to sleep.

I don't know if I slept quietly or not. Morpheus came to me quickly.

OoOoOoOo

I dreamt that night. It's rare enough to be noted.

Sorry, didn't use the right words. As any other sleeping human, I dream every night - it's just that I rarely remember them; the nightmare/memory is in another category. The 'normal' dreams were almost always forgotten when I woke up. But so I dreamed, and I could remember it once I was awake. Maybe it was because I had gone to sleep earlier than usual.

I began by seeing again, in dream, Genma making a fool of himself and embarrassing me in the lockers room and annoying me to death to know if my 'girlfriend' was cute or not. I knew where I was - as in, the lockers - but everything was kinda blurry, even Genma was. And it wasn't Zabuza who put his head out of the shower to ask if I had done Emily, but a mix of Zabuza and Obito - and it was feeling right.

I'm pretty sure Zabuza-Obito from the dream winked at me before the dream went faster and directly to the next scene.

I knew I was on one of the pedestrian streets downtown Konoha, even if it wasn't looking like it at all. I knew the street was crowded, but it was only... how to say? An indistinct mass, just impression of people... The only person who was perfectly defined was the one walking with me, his sweater printed dolphin on his back.

You know how work dreams, it looks like you're in a story, and you're following the action without seemingly being able to do anything. Here, I knew I was walking with Iruka into Konoha's streets to go to the ramen stand at the bottom of the Hokage's Monument - even if said stand was on the other side of the Monument in the reality. I knew it was Iruka next to me, even if I didn't see his face once.

And then suddenly there was only Iruka and me in the street, and a third person appeared a bit further that where we were. The person made a large waving motion of the hand, a large grin on his face.

Not that the grin was that surprising. Obito was always smiling.

This instant did a lot of good to me - because in my dream Iruka knew Obito, and Obito knew Iruka and they were both here in this street and it was right, usual, and in a second Obito was going to walk to us and tease us as a hello before we all went to eat ramen enough to burst...

There was another fast forward.

I dreamt of flames, and of suffocating warmth. My mask was half melting on my face, the straps were overheated, and the left sleeve of my uniform was littered with tiny red and hot dots. I had to find someone into this hell, I had to - at this moment I woke up in a beat, the dream still there in my mind.

The last feelings left by the dream were still there too. I wasn't Iruka I was looking for in the flaming inferno.

OoOoOoOoOoO End 18th part OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

_One good news : I almost caught back the french version, so chapters will in a very close future, come at almost the same time in both languages._

_And the next part is up and ready, and will be online in a week's time. See you all later!_


	19. Chapter 19

**A shinobi is a high school student like another - 19**

**Beta by Nine Tailed Vixen - thanks a lot!**

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I'm lucky I've got classes only in the morning on Wednesday. I very much doubt I could have done the whole day in the half-zombie state I was in.

An hour before the end of the classes I was sprawled on a table in the library with an eye on Itachi who was working a bit further, the rest of me working on doing its night again. The dream had woke me up at an hour not suited for waking up, and no matter what, I could not go back to sleep afterward. And I still had bits of the dream in the back of my throat. It was the end, especially, which was bothering me; going like that into the inferno... bad pun, but it was the kind of thing I was very not hot for.

I don't like dreaming all that much. It makes me want to go to Rin.

Don't believe I was only sleeping on my table. I was thinking too. I was wondering with the all trouble, why the rest of the Fugaku Uchiha family wasn't under surveillance since the beginning just like him; why Itachi was in a public school; what the heck those assassinations attempts really meant...

A familiar presence stepped into the library, and went straight for me. Iruka... I had seen him only briefly this morning; we hadn't had the time to say anything while passing past each others into corridors. At the same time, I was a bit apprehensive at the idea of speaking to him - I was determined not to lie to him. That was leading me to ask myself a lot of questions. I barely knew the guy, and though...Maaah, too many questions.

Iruka sat beside me... and got up straight back to kiss me. I needed a second to digest the surprise.

"mmm... 'Ruka!" I exclaimed in a low voice - try it one of these days, it's harder than it seems. "What the...?"

He sat back, a smile tugging up the corner of his lips. "It's not like anyone's going to see us here. I... excuse-me for yesterday."

"Huh? Excuse you for what?"

The librarian, the cross of an old mouse and a mole, hissed a "chhhhhh" indiscreet at all from behind her desk, far, far away over there, behind rows and rows of forgotten books. We immediately shut up by habit, and I suddenly remembered why I almost never went here, even breathing was too loud for her.

I suddenly had an idea worth of a genius' one to get my head back straight on tracks and spend some time with Iruka. And hey, I'm supposed to be one. "Iruka, how about you come with me for lunch at Rin's?"

"Rin?"

How to explain Rin... quickly, otherwise we're still there tomorrow...

"Er... How to say it...? A friend who plays more or less big sister, even mum? I'll use the time to give you your sweater back," I said with a wink, while un-sprawling myself from the table to show him the tribal dolphin exposed in the opening of my jacket.

Itachi hadn't moved from his table.

"Wasn't she on the picture? Brown hair, square cut?" asked Iruka.

"Yeah, that's her. And then at noon, Rai' shouldn't be there..." I thought out loud. I wanted to keep my resolution of letting them have space - but if he wasn't there, no need to bother.

"Rai'?"

Oops, teach me to think out loud. The bell at the end of class rang, and Itachi took his time to take his things properly before leaving the library. I ended getting up too, following the high school flow and following him as a shadow, all the while keeping on chatting, Iruka beside me.

"Rai' - Raidou, that's his real name... He's her official boyfriend; since the time they were all mushy around each other..."

The face I pulled drew a smile from Iruka - and he wasn't looking too hot; he was drawn and his eyes were a bit too dark. Zabuza stepped out from a class further down, and his stare met mine, giving me an tiny indication. He was taking his turn tracking down Itachi from there, even if the guys from the other team assigned to watching over him shouldn't be far from the exit. I didn't see them, but at the same time, those guys were absolute professionals at discretion.

"Oh, wait a second," Iruka suddenly said.

He more or less left me in the middle of the exit portal crowded with high school population, and went toward a darker part of the growing crowd... Ah, okay, he was going to warn his cousin - I wasn't about to complain if it could avoid me a scene like last Sunday one's... Well, it's true I had learned some tidbits and stuff, but it had only lead me to have more questions - questions I couldn't really ask Iruka right now.

I sighed. Asuma, cancer stick between his lips, waved at me before Kurenai walked to him.

Iruka was coming back toward me when a vigorous tap on my back forced me to take a step forward in order not to end sprawled on the cold hard floor.

"You're getting soft Hatake!" observed a very energetic girl's voice. "Come to see me one of this days..." she drawled, then the voice's owner strolled past us to go to Kurenai and Asuma while waving and smiling with a bit too much teeth to my tastes.

Iruka froze. "Who was she?"

"Ah, er..."

How do you say to the person you're sleeping with that the person he just walked past is your former human pillow? Don't think we had stood like sticks in the middle during that time - we had begun to walk, and to go toward the less scenic places of Konoha, in the direction of Rin's building.

"Don't tell me she's your ex?"

Well, if he says it, I don't have to say it... right? I must have pulled a strange face, 'cause he pulled one too, his eyes suddenly going wide.

"How did you manage to go out with Tatsuki Arisawa?" he said, accenting the name. I could almost hear the 'THE' before her name.

Phew, I wasn't me the problem, it was Tatsuki's fame - Tatsuki, as known as my ex, but also almost-killer and almost-professional karateka haunting the high school karate's club and the principal dojo in town. She's fun, but she can get downright scary - she's really good at what she does...

"Kurenai threatened me...?"

No need to give you a picture, the travel to Rin's was spend explaining in details the hows and whys of me and Tatsuki, which could be explained very simply : Kurenai threatened me. And alcohol. I'm realizing I know quite some girls who are a bit...scary? Neurotic?

The conversation died out when we went through places really not all that known. And seeing as we hadn't taken the bus, there was time to notice all the details. That doesn't mean it was bad places, or dangerous ones, not at all, it was even places less dangerous than in front of the high school, but it wasn't really the kind of places you would see on tourist advertisements.

I understand Iruka wasn't looking too hot seeing the neighborhood - I think I would have already fled, me, if the guy I was seeing was taking me in a quarter like this one. But I'm not crazy either, the building is at the border between the non-scenic places and the underground - and the underground, I wasn't about to go in with anyone. And lets get real, the streets behind the harbor may seem normal at first sight, but I would never go there without uniform and mask, or without a knife in hand.

The building came in sight, fortunately, its facade still as dirty, still as grey under the winter sun which hadn't risen at all this morning. I climbed the few steps leading to the glass door, and one of the ladies working in the hall smiled at me when she recognized me behind the glass.

"Kakashi?"

Iruka had stayed at the bottom of the steps, an eyebrow frowned. I turned toward him and smiled in what I was hoping to be a reassuring manner, adding a head gesture to it toward the door.

"Rin lives and works there - c'mon, come before you freeze to death."

He stretched a corner of lips in a half smile before climbing to me - it was really cold out there, even too cold for snow to fall again. We stepped in, I saluted the lady with a nod before sneaking to the kitchens, where Rin had to be at the hour seeing the loads of people in the corridors - cold has the tendency to gather people in warm place.

However, as we were going further into the building, I couldn't miss to notice Iruka's hand at his temple and his frowning face.

Kitchens looked like a battle field - or like an emergency service a Sunday evening, depending on which TV show you're addicted to. So Iruka and I stayed in the door threshold. I spotted Rin on the other side of the room - and my pant's leg was suddenly and inexplicably gripped and the corresponding pocket thoroughly searched. Rin was there before us a blink of an eye later, relief written all over her face.

"Kakashi, saints be blessed, you couldn't come at a better time - look after Naruto for me while I finish putting the service on track."

"I wanted to abuse your cooking at the beginning..."

She smiled with just the eyes, knowing how I work since the time she knew me - I was going to her mostly to be fussed over, and it was one of her favorite hobbies. She slightly inclined her head, as if to see over my shoulder.

"And who's that charming young man behind you?"

Iruka raised his head from the surprised attention he had put into trying to understand what the blond brat was doing exactly still clutching to my leg, and blushed a bit. A call coming from the recesses of the kitchen hindered Rin from interrogating us yet.

"Just go on, my door is open - I'm coming."

I would have liked to move right on the spot if the leech known as Naruto had deigned cooperated. But no, the very stubborn kid - I won't go wondering where and who this character streak was coming from - stayed there to clutch my leg firmly, look at Iruka.

"Who are you?" he ended by blurting. I'd like to mention that Sensei and Sara do their very best to raise their kid, but that unfortunately, with the time said kid spend in all the HQ's legs, their very best goes generally down, especially in the good manners' domain.

Iruka smiled - or did what could pass for a smile, his glazed eyes and the hand pressing his temple were enough to tell me of his real state. "My name's Iruka - you're Naruto, aren't you? Nice to meet you."

"You're a friend of Kakashi-nii?"

I couldn't refrain from rolling my eyes before their exchange - Iruka was always staying, in a rather non-understandable manner, polite, charming and smiling before any interlocutor, even when he was having the mother of all headaches. As for Naruto, once he started to ask questions, there was no known way to stop him - and I was under the suspicion Iruka was going to experience it soon.

"Hey ladies, how about we continue introducing each other elsewhere?" As if to confirm my wanting to climb up to Rin's, one of the kitchen workers came to try to pass by the door we were mobbing - Iruka and Naruto had no other choice than to follow me. Well... Iruka followed me, Naruto was dragging me by the pant leg and I had no other choice than to follow the move.

As soon as we stepped into Rin's apartment, Iruka spotted the bathroom, and excused himself, closing the door behind him. I heard the sound of water running a few seconds later. Naruto had left my pant for the action figures dejectedly lying at the foot of the messy bed. I didn't have to worry about him for now - the person I was worrying about had currently locked himself. And the reason why he had locked himself was sitting on the floor busy playing with pieces of plastic.

"Naruto, eh, Naruto," I said, crouching down to his level, my bag dropped unceremoniously, "how about we play a game together?"

"Yeah, a game, a game!" he said enthusiastically. "What is it?"

"You remember what your dad taught you? You know the trick of controlling your energy and keeping it inside? You do it until I'm gone, and if you hold it, you win a meal at the Ichiraku, all right?"

He vigorously nodded, and folded all his little face in a funny way to show his concentration. I opened my left eye for a tiny second, and I could already notice Naruto's chakra moving and reentering the brat. I rose without adding anything more, and went to the closed door behind which Iruka had retreated - even if I doubted distance was of little help there. I was hoping the 'game' I was making Naruto do would tone down the pain.

I put my hand on the door. The sound of water running had stopped. "Iruka? Can I come in?"

There had no answer, but I pushed the door open anyway. Iruka was leaning against the sink, his untied hair hiding his face. And then he faced me - he was looking worse than this morning.

"Better?" I said to the silence, before mentally hitting myself.

He nodded before taking a deep breath, and going through his pockets to find a tie. His bag was lying at his feet.

"I'm sorry," I blurted out.

He turned toward me, and confusion was clearly written all over his tired face.

"Er? Sorry about what?"

Naruto had gone back to his normal behavior of game behind, no caring a second of what was going on between his 'nii' and the smiling guy who had came with him, hitting his actions figures ones on the others with loud noises of explosions and others battle-related sounds.

I made a move of my hand and head, including Iruka, the sink and the whole building and which could probably have meant everything and nothing, but that I was hoping to be understandable anyway. Yeah, and the marmot fold the chocolate into the aluminum sheet, that's well known...

However, Iruka managed to catch what I wanted to say.

"Sorry about the headache?"

I nodded.

"It's..."

Iruka shook his head before beginning again. "Don't be sorry for everything happening. It's not as if you were provoking it..."

So little he knew... I don't know what to do, what to say - I could tell him everything right there, give him my theories, and explain what I was - what we were - I could...

Who was I trying to convince here? I'm not ready to tell him. I know I'm getting attached in a worrying manner, and that more the time will pass, more the shock of revelation - buh, sounds like a tabloid - will hurt on each side, and that the feeling of betrayal will do nothing to help things out and...

My brain went into a rarely used mode : the 'panic-goes-'round' mode. It happened in half of a second.

Iruka smiled - and this expression made every little lines I knew to be lines of pain disappear.

"But," he said," maybe I'm going to have to be sorry about that."

He kissed me, his skin was too cold against mine, and I felt like I tasted the pain always hiding in him. At least my brain was out of the 'panic' mode - I'll let you guess where it was going.

Naruto was still playing in the other room.

The door opened, giving way for Rin's footsteps. We separated, panting a bit.

"Don't ever be sorry about that...," and I kissed him again on his parted lips.

We got out, Rin, and Naruto who wanted to help, were already in the kitchen. I let Iruka go first.

All right, the question was now, how to manage for Rin, first, don't tease me (us) about that since she couldn't not have understood what happened in the bathroom, and second, don't give the information out. I wouldn't please me if my boyfriend was the next big topic of the HQ gossip vine.

Wait a sec...

My boyfriend? ... Holy freakin' shit.

...yeah, My boyfriend.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO End 19th part OoOoOoOoOoOoO

_Yeah, and the marmot put the chocolate into the aluminum sheet, that's well known..._ That refers to a TV ad for the Swiss chocolate Milka that was pretty popular some two years ago in France - and it passed down into the familiar language. There was a guy who had seen the marmots working for Milka putting chocolate into aluminum sheets, and nobody believed him.

I'm a bit anxious to know why I've had two reviews for the last two parts. Is it that bad? I'd really love to get some feedback for this one. Thank you.


	20. Chapter 20

**A shinobi is a high school student like another - 20**

_Un-betaed, forgive me for the bad grammar - incase you forgot, I'm French._

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

I was expecting the lunch to be tense, awkward, something... I don't know...

I was expecting Rin to tease us-me to death, given that she had this tiny little smirk of hers that was saying "you, you're going to tell me everything" when she was looking at me. She didn't do anything tough. It was the best lunch I've ever had. And don't believe it if you want, but Naruto and Iruka were like peas in a pod. I wasn't really expecting this, because of Naruto's chakra on one hand, and because Iruka had to have gone past 'forced babysitting' with his cousin... no?

Naruto talked with Iruka the whole lunch long, from school to his now-abandonned again action figures, without forgetting his mom's fixation on orange.

They were still happily chatting, and Rin and I were busy tidying her kitchen, when someone knocked at the door and stepped in. Raidou's head quickly showed up in the kitchen, as if to know who could be there - I bet there was a bit more noise than when there was only Rin and Naruto for lunch. He smiled at me first then raised an eyebrow, his eyes making a slight slide to Iruka. Rin promptly jumped at his neck, Naruto screamed a 'Hi!' and Iruka rose his head, smiling, to introduce himself.

Raidou's arrival was showing (to me at least) that's it was the to leave, since I had took those good resolutions for my almost-sister and almost-brother-in-laws to get some time quiet together - tough I'm not sure 'quiet' is a word one can safely use with Naruto around... Bah, the worse it can lead to is for them to think twice before having brats of their own.

I quickly introduced Iruka to Raidou (and left behind the details), then we were out again, where the temperatures hadn't warmed up at all during the hour and a half we had been inside. We began to stroll toward the river that was cutting Konoha in two parts, the old town, with the monument and all the districts of the ancient clans, and the 'new' city, where we were for now, and where the school and the city center were. It was also the cleanest way to get out of this part of the town.

I realized while walking that I hadn't told Rin about my 'dream'... dream that I was more or less digesting - but to be exact, something else had taken its place, something else that was nibbling my heart : Iruka and me. You're going to tell me I've been feeding you up with this for quite some time and that it could mean anything too, but the thing was that I wasn't that far from the panic mode again with emotional overload on top.

It was really the first time this kind of stuff was happening to me - and then, you can say when talking about feelings and sentiments, and me, there's not a lot of training between us. Hey, watch out, I'm not saying I'm in love or anything, far from it. I'm just saying that I appreciated him a lot...

_... why is he wearing those pants, they're not baggy enough... Breathe, breathe._

Little by little, even if I was dragging a bit behind and not just because of Iruka's ass, we made it to the wharves, in the profile of the Hokages set in stone.

Well, saying 'the wharves' is a bit of an abuse of language. On the side of the river where we were, it was the territory of the former port facilities, as well as the new ones, for now covered with snow and so useless - the river only iced on a few centimeters in Konoha, but it ran to the ocean, a few hundred of kilometers up to the north, and covered by ice floe this time of the year. So the ports were shutting down in winter and were waiting for the ice to break up under their white blankets, or, as here, the port facilities had long since moved toward the exterior of the city, just leaving behind them tagged old buildings and equipments not rehabilitated yet, and waste grounds which were turning to snowmen fields once winter had settled.

On the other side of the river, the embankments had been converted a long time ago into a promenade, wiping out in the process bits of olds districts here and there - bits that only my clan's records still had the memory of.

There was still a good thickness of fresh snow here. Five minutes later, we were throwing snowballs at each other. We weren't about to restrain ourselves, the only other person around was an old woman who was walking her dog, and who had turned around at Iruka's first iced 'yelp' when getting hit by a snowball.

I used the relative isolation to 'infuse' some of my snowballs with some chakra. And as I had more or less expected, and more 'more' than 'less', Iruka avoided those ones more easily.

I was surprised he had never realized his capability; him, or someone of his family, or even the doctors he had seen for his headaches when he was a kid. But, at the same time, there was few people who still know about the ninja's ways and mysteries, and I had read in Tsunade's archives that chakra wasn't easy to find with modern medical techniques. I couldn't help but find it a bit strange that no-one had paid attention to it before... and that, maybe it was time to give him clues about his hidden skills...

... It would really bug me off if someone else than someone I trusted a little bit was taking an interest in him and showed him what he could do... say, someone like Otsuka... someone who wouldn't mind using a person as a weapon, with the rights and liberties this status entail - yeah, as in 'no rights' and 'no liberties'.

And how, are you going to ask me, this someone could know about the ninja's ways?

Missing-nins still exist nowadays, getting rid of them is just a tad bit more complicated.

The snowballs' drumfire - as much as a drumfire of snowballs can exist when there's just two hands on each side - suddenly stopped, and Iruka fell bonelessly with a 'oof' in a area of thicker snow, leaving a deep trace. Then he slowly breathed before spreading the snow around him with his legs and arms. I stepped closer. His eyes were closed, and his cheeks and nose were flushed pink with the cold.

"You're gonna be soaked to the bone," I said, before laying down in the snow next to him.

"All the more reasons to take off all the unnecessary layers later, don't you think?"

I laughed, my face raised toward the sky. We could catch glimpses of blue sky between the shoals of clouds which were swimming up there over our heads. A flock of birds passed between the white and the blue ; from here, they were just black moving pinpoints.

He straightened, sitting up in his already frozen traces, and turned his head to look at the monument. Shodaime, Nidaime, Sandaime, Yondaime, Godaime and Rokudaime were gazing at their village with their stares frozen in stone. The monument is the pride and the easiest way to get money into Konoha's vaults, since it was The touristic attraction. Looking at it made me want to gag, or to scream ; to do something not very polite and not very accepted in our 'civilized societies'.

Konoha's last Hokage, Rokudaime, gazes at his village with the half of a face. Godaime was targeted during the last wars to the point she's barely recognizable. Sandaime's stone face has been cut in half by an collapse of the bit of cliff above. Time passed upon the death masks of the three other Hokages. No one in Konoha really remember the faces of the woman and men who had been carved there in stone to remember.

Yeah, great. Die for your country, we'll remember you.

Stone-Sandaime didn't look one bit like my Sandaime, and the same could be said for Yondaime and Sensei. It was better this way.

Shit, just thinking about the monument lead me to brooding. I find my reaction rather irrational but I don't really know where to begin to 'cure' that.

The wind was playing with Iruka's stray locks. He looked tired, like someone harassed by his thoughts, or harassed by real people. Maybe I could ask him now why so many people seemed to not hold him in their hearts back at school...

"Iruka?"

He turned his head away from the monument to look at me, laying in the snow next to him, my hands crossed behind my head.

"Mm?"

I had already mentally reviewed ten or so way to begin, and I had tried to mouth half of it. And then a detail came back to my mind : a guy I knew was part of the much hated school's 'newspaper' had crossed us -Iruka and me- this morning before the first class, when Zabuza was busy taking his shift on Itachi's tail outside. This guy had pulled a face when looking at Iruka. It had seemed to me that Iruka hadn't noticed.

"What's the newspaper's people problem with you?... I think it would be more right to say that half the people in school got something against you..."

His eyes went from mine to the snow covered area around us, then slide to what little we could see of the frozen river from where we were sprawled. I couldn't catch a single glimpse of blue in the white overhead, and I felt the wind with a renewed acuity. Of course, we had to count with our clothes that weren't exactly adapted to prolonged stays in snow.

I got up, sweeping with a hand the small blocks of snow which had frozen to my jeans, before reaching to Iruka - Iruka who still hadn't replied to my question, and whose stare had lost itself on the river. He noticed my hand just when it entered his field of vision, and he looked absently at it for a little while. I moved it.

"Gotta move before becoming snowmen. And passing to the 'later' from 'taking off all the unnecessary layers' you talked about earlier sounds like a good idea, don't you think?"

Iruka's face changed of expression - it went from 'lost somewhere' to a hard-to-describe mix of 'pervert!' and well-hidden impatience. He sure knew how to hide his game.

He grabbed my hand to get up, but he didn't let go straight after - his hands were cold, unlike mines.

Behind us, all that was left was two traces in the snow - a long one, and one which looked like it had been done by an angel who had fell here.

OoOoOoOoO

We went back to my place, with the help of a bus. The clouds were threateningly heavy with snow.

It was strange to have someone else in my kitchen... it wasn't usual. I fished some chocolate power I didn't though I still had from the back of a cupboard, and Iruka assured me that the unopened bottle of milk in my fridge could still be drank.

The almost tangible silence settling in the room once our hot cocoa in hand was like a blanket - thick, heavy without being uncomfortable, warm and fluffy. Before someone ask, yeah, I had forgot again to get the heater on - but fortunately, it was warmer in than out. Our jackets and pull-overs had been spread on every free space in the living-room in the hope it would dry up, and my sockets had followed the same fate when Iruka had made me notice that I was leaving ponds behind me once our dripping shoes had been left at the door. I hadn't realized it, but my feet were feeling and looking like ice blocks.

We were sitting one across the other, and by a game of chance our legs had gotten entwined together... I got to note that this table wasn't very large, even if four people could supposedly take place on.

"They hate me because I send someone to jail."

Iruka cut brutally the silence, and it took me a few minutes to register that he had say something and the to digest said thing.

"Huh?"

Iruka let go of his steaming mug to run a hand in his hair, and he turned his face to the window - the one who was opening on my miserable garden.

"I don't know where to began," he blurted out, sounding lost.

He seemed to sink down on the chair. I reached for his hand on the other side of the table. They were still cold.

"And what about beginning by the start?"

He clutched at my hand in response, his eyes on our hands together. Beuh, it sounds like a bad cliché, but it was obvious he needed a minimum of support here. Support that I had no problem giving.

Shit.

I don't know exactly what was happening, but one thing was for sure : the more it would last, the more I would put him in danger. And I wouldn't put only him in danger. I was about to put our whole organization in jeopardy if I went on, because if he asked me just one question about my scars, I wouldn't lie to him, nor omit the truth, and it would lead to say everything.

My thoughts were quickly stopped. He had put his half-open lips against mines, and after the first surprise, I answered to the kiss. It was a bit like the first time we had kissed, the first time we had had sex. His kiss tasted like despair.

His eyes were wide open, glued to mine.

Kissing to forget. I had done it too. I understood. My hands slide under the few clothes he still had on.

He didn't close his eyes.

OoOoOoOoO

I hadn't switched the light on in my room - the bleak light coming through the window was enough. We were entwined, hidden into the haphazardly thrown on blankets.

"I send a motherfucker to jail, but it's so much easier to blame on the fairy queen, isn't it?"

Iruka's voice was strangely empty against my throat. His question wasn't expecting an answer - or rather, not an answer coming from me - and I tightened my arms around him. He continued with the same cold tone of voice, almost clinical; the tone of voice of a pathologist in front of his corpse du jour.

"Especially when all buddies of said fucker are the local jocks... and a good part of the rest of the school..."

"It's him who...?" I asked with saying more, my fingers brushing the scars on his back.

He just nodded against my neck, then he froze when my fingers touched the larger scar, the one which was dangerously close from his spine, the one which was still pinkish. His voice came out muffled when he answered to the unspoken question of my fingers:

"He tried to kill me."

And that was all. He silently sighed. I didn't ask anymore questions, he didn't elaborate - he had answered my question, and it was all he wanted to tell me for now. I was all right with that.

I had a feeling like I would get the links between the clues soon enough.

It was good there, hidden in the blankets. Nothing could happen to us. The light had dropped, outside. I didn't know what time it was and I didn't gave it a damn. If Iruka decided to stay right there and set camp for the next three weeks, I was more than agreeing.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO End 20th chapter OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

_Many many thanks to everyone of you who waited patiently for this chapter to get translated - and thanks to every reviewer!_


	21. Chapter 21

**A shinobi is a high school student like another - 21**

_Soundtrack (non-exhaustive list): 'Casshern: Our last days', by Shiro Sagisu, various songs by Janus, by Sigur Ros, a helping of Nine Inch Nails, 'Ergo Proxy OST' by Ike Yoshihiro, 'Tuna fish' by Emiliana Torrini._

Unbeta-ed. Forgive my bad English.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The 'Christmas' holidays arrived before I realized it. Two days after Iruka had came with me at Rin's, the only conversations we could hear at the end of classes were some 'happy holidays', some 'and you, where are you going?', some 'yeah, I'm flying to New York for the holidays'. Okay, I admit I heard the last one only once, but everything that was said was out of the same batch.

I knew Iruka was working at the pub during the holidays, and Emily with him ; and who said Emily, said Izumo. Iruka had said he would take a break if, I quote, 'Kotetsu can borrow his mother's car and there's enough snow', which was strongly implying a visit to one of the near-by ski resorts. He had promised to call me if it worked.

I wasn't that sure to be able to take a break myself. The two weeks and some away from classes were going to be all but holidays for us - all this show with Uchiha and co and Otsuka-bastard was stinking more and more by the day.

If I could manage to see Iruka once, I'd be happy.

And then, I didn't really knew where I would be for the holidays - I mean, the last two years, I had spent the time at Sensei's ; first year, they had kept an eye on me, and last year I had kept an eye on Naruto. I'd have rather be allowed to stay at my place between my shifts in the HQ this year. Or maybe I'd be lucky enough to be assigned to full service for the duration of the holidays...

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

The first Big Bad Thing of the holidays jumped on me Saturday.

Well, to be exact, it began Friday evening, when Sensei had flat out refused for me to spend the holidays in full service, saying it wasn't "healthy". I protested, to no avail of course – but he accepted for me to stay at my place, if I spend Christmas and New year with them. I said yes ; it wasn't as if I could have say anything else.

Saturday, I slept in until I decided to go see how were things in the HQ – Sensei had asked me to come, but he hadn't said when. But as soon as I stepped into the training room where the people supposed to be part of my team were, I knew I should have stayed in my bed.

Sensei asked me to go with Genma this very evening – or very night, if you prefer – to meet with one of our agents infiltrated into some of the seediest part of Konoha's underground. The only trouble was that the meeting was to take place in a bar. And no-one sane trust Genma with anything alcohol-related. I somehow felt that I was going to like my night. This was sarcasm.

OoOoOoO

I went back to my place later in the afternoon, having spent many hours going through the files of just about anyone who could have had ties with Otsuka, from gang's leader to dealer and others – all those people we kept under close scrutiny and on which we had files thicker than my thigh. We couldn't do much about them though. Agent Reno Mattura, as known as Carrot Top, had came briefly too, bringing records of the security camera from around the Internal Security Department and Uchiha's home - "home" that was a friggin' building, for kami's sake.

I had the displeasure of confirming what he already suspected – two of the people who had been with Otsuka at the meeting had showed up irregularly on the records, at both places. We were all sinking deep… and something was telling me that maybe there was no bottom. I had kinda hoped a shower would have helped me feel less dirty, but it hadn't really helped.

I had a nagging feeling, no more than a fleeting impression in the back on my head, that things were going to turn ugly – and not just because I was babysitting Genma for the evening.

I waited in the kitchen for Gen' to pick me up, nibbling on a packet of not-too-perished cookies. Another post-it found its way on my desperately white fridge – one drawing of Naruto put aside -, telling I had to go shopping in a near future if I wanted to eat more than the dust in the back of my cupboards. A near future, as in the next time the shops would be open, as next Monday, the 23rd, eve of Christmas' Eve and major hell let-loose-on-the-shops of the year. Wait a second here… eve of Christmas' eve?

… What gift could I possibly find for Iruka?

The sound of an abused and battered engine drifted from outside, and when I glanced out by the street-side window, I got confirmation that it was Genma's piece of junk that was waiting for me under the disco-style lamppost - understand here a blinking lamppost... I grabbed my jacket and took the time to insure myself of the good concealment of my only weapon, and hop, I was opening the shotgun's door.

Genma barely gave me the time to sit down and buckle up, he threw a file on my lap and revived the engine. His senbon was angrily clicking between his teeth. He wasn't wearing his 'better days' 's face either.

I opened the file. A guy I couldn't have given an age, and that I was almost sure to have forget in the hour, stared back at me.

"That's our source -makes himself get called Yamato, but you must have heard about him under the name Tenzu. He gravitates in the seediest underground levels, the place we can't reach otherwise. Always him who tell when and where to meet - and it's not in the preppy places."

He stopped at a crossing, the 'stop' sign almost unreadable under layers of stickers and various writings.

"Did Sensei told you why he put you on this, by the way?"

He re-started as I was shaking my head.

"It was Aoba who was supposed to tag along first, but his girl went at the hospital earlier than expected, Aoba Jr. was getting impatient - he had to go..."

I smiled. Genma may act gruff and all, but everyone in the HQ love kids, him the first. Seeing how many of us stayed down in the streets to never come back as years crept by, having a kid was misleading death. I was sincerely hoping for Aoba, his girlfriend and his newborn kid, that he would stop being on the field.

I suddenly frowned, wondering why I hadn't had access to his file earlier.

"Hey Gen', why hadn't I had this all earlier?" I asked him.

His senbon clicked angrily between his teeth, catching sharp and deadly glimpses of light from the public lights.

"Morino thinks there's one mole -or more- at the HQ... and Yondaime agrees with him."

OoOoO

The atmosphere was kinda tense when we finally got out of the car in a otherwise unremarkable narrow side-street. I noticed the group of too broad-shouldered guys on the other side of the street though, the falsely laid-back guy leaning not far from the metallic door toward which Genma was walking. I followed him.

The music reverberating in the bar - 'cause yeah, it was a bar - was very close from not being bearable because way too loud, and there was literally a mob around the counter. Four girls were dancing on the counter top, their boots slapping in rhythm against the overused wood, drinks going back and fro between them. Genma brought back two beers, and tried to go around the mob - I was hoping Yamato would show up fast. Genma nodded to me and we took a staircase down to go in the back-room.

Said back-room was worse than the bar over it, way louder and more crowded if it was even possible. There was a kind of grille cage in the middle, over-lighted by smoking projectors - the crowd was literally climbing on it, screaming, yelling, whistling.

Welcome to the pit.

"Gen'," I said, my untouched beer in hand, "I thought you couldn't stand fight-clubs."

He shrugged as an answer, nose in his drink, eyes falsely attracted by the cage ; but he was seeing everything, spotting, mapping, searching. I had marked the exits too, pro and con of the place.

"No choice."

We got closer from the cage. I snorted - it smelled like adrenalin, excitement, arousal, sweat and blood. One of the two guys inside was pouring out blood from his eyebrow and a split lip. The other one had an old-looking scar burn on half his face, and seemed ready to beat his adversary into a pulp no matter what. The crowd was screaming louder with each hit, eager for blood.

"The Prince is in a good mood tonight, don't you think?"

We whirled 'round at the sound of this voice which had rang a bit too close for my taste. Our guy was there - I would have passed him in the street without a second glance - perfect for undercover work.

We more or less made our way through the human sea, following him to find a table stuck between metallic pillars and blind walls.

Yamato didn't bother with useless politeness and cut straight into the matter at hands.

"Otsuka got allied with the Triads' lowest branches, and word is around that he have passed agreements with the downtown yakuza's clans - couldn't get anything more precise. He's leader in the trade now, there's only the europeans to stand up against him now, but putting the city to fire and sword is the last thing they want."

He stopped to shrug down a mouthful of beer from his can. Mine was on the table, still full. I quickly glanced around us - no-one seemed to bother with us, but one was never cautious enough. The crowd shouted out suddenly, before resuming to its normal level.

"And about Uchiha?" asked Genma.

"Impossible to know a single thing - from the rare rumors, Otsuka is personally taking care of it. There's something big coming up. Too many people shut up for it to be something else."

The crowd shouted out a triumph - the guy with the burn scar was landing blow after blow on his adversary, demolishing his face before letting him fall to the floor, under the acclaims and money changing hands.

OoOoOoOo

The HQ looked like an ant-farm a kid had kicked in, repeatedly. Even with the insidious threat of a traitor in our ranks, we were getting prepared for the worst.

Do not think we were ringing the alarm at every piece of news we were putting our hands on. The informations Yamato had given us a few hours earlier had just been the proverbial drop of water ; everything was adding and crosschecking too precisely to be mere coincidences.

Every team had been called back, and the manpower affected to full service was doubled. I was affected to full service too, to Sensei's great displeasure. He forced me to take the 24th as a day off - but Christmas' Night would be spent on the field.

OoOoOoOo

On the 24th, once I was up and ready - not early in any way since I had spend most part of the previous night on a patrol - I walked to the 'Ocean's Shore', Iruka's Christmas gift cautiously wrapped in my backpack. I was hoping it would please him, since it was more a hazardous guess than anything - if wasn't as if I could have asked advice from anyone I knew.

I wouldn't have seen myself asking Zabuza what he was going to offer Haku for an example ; and then, I wasn't sure if Haku's kind of gifts would have been to Iruka's tastes. Maybe I could have asked Rin... but I hadn't had any time to drop by her place.

The street leading to the 'Ocean's Shore' was lighted in every direction, strings of lights or candles at every window, shadows of Christmas' Trees behind every curtain, fir trees of a bright green covered with fresh snow on the length of the sidewalk. Christmas was taking the sense of a real feast in this district, and not just a commercial feast with its loads and loads of ads as in the rest to the city. There even was a guy dressed as Father Christmas directing kids singing carols at a corner. I was surprised by the number of people out, from the kids trying to make snowmen looking like snowmen on the sidewalks to the grown-ups muffled up in winters coats and flooding up papers bags.

The 'Ocean's Shore' was full, but it had nothing to do with the screaming crowd in the underground bar. People here seemed happy, their beers in hand, singing along in front of the mute rerun of a rugby match. There was children here too, sitting on their parents' lap and their noses buried in hot cocoa. Everyone seemed to know each other here.

I don't really know what I was feeling. Envy? Jealousy?

Iruka was manning the counter with his uncles, all busily chatting with some patrons. I smiled to him when his gaze crossed my eye. He smiled in return, his eyes glittering, before saying something to one of his uncles - I think it was Franck - and making sign for me to follow him up the stairs.

It's only once we stepped at 'his' floor that he pressed me against the wall in a sudden and very enjoyable kiss.

"I'm glad to see you," he finally said, his face at a few centimeters from mine.

"Merry Christmas," I answered, my face half-eaten by my smile. "Missed me?"

"Idiot..."

"You want your gift or what?"

The eyebrow he rose in response to that was all but innocent, as was his warm body pressed very very closely against mine. I carefully cleared my throat.

"The gift and 'that' later."

I was suddenly aware of some green stuff that was dangling from the ceiling not far from our heads.

"What's this?"

Iruka turned a bit between my arms to see about what I was talking about, then chuckled.

"That's mistletoe... Alice says it's for luck but it's just a pretense... You got to kiss under the mistletoe," he ended in a breathy whisper.

"... I suddenly adore this tradition."

I didn't even had my hands under his sweater -or his tee-shirt, for all that matters- when a scream broke us apart in surprise.

_"Oh. My. Goooood!"_

It was Emily climbing down the stairs, a box of Christmas' knickknack in her arms, still as vampire-like as ever, and her eyes wide. She composed herself back before we could do anything.

"Please guys, don't do this in the corridors, or I'll end up wanting to follow you everywhere with a camera..."

I froze quite violently, trying to understand what in the name of the kami a camera was doing in this... sentence... Iruka was laughing himself sick before I understood.

"Merry Christmas anyway Kakashi!" She sent, whirling her blackness around.

Iruka was still hiccuping bursts of laughter.

"Sorry... Well, how about we check those... 'gifts' more privately?"

I couldn't help but shaking my head.

"I pity the one who fell to those innocent Bambi eyes of yours."

"... Innocent Bambi eyes? Was that an insult or a compliment?"

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

I was in a good mood when I made it to the HQ this evening.

It didn't last long.

All people on service were dispatched and sent out in the streets at 0015. The 'infernal team' was out too.

Spotting the troubles was easy enough ; as soon as we were out on the rooftops, we could see the smoke and the fire. The screaming sirens and others flashing lights were just there for the decor.

Two blocks from our target, two teams left the leading part to circle the place and create a surveillance cordon directly linked to the HQ. No-one, and nothing, would move into our action perimeter without us knowing on the spot.

Some explosions which were sounding too much like gas explosions echoed over the roofs. I felt more than I saw Raidou suddenly tensing up, and with a nod, I told him to leave with Kodia and half of the team following us to arrive on the site by the other side.

Genma, Zabuza and me perched ourselves a bit further up.

The site was the Uchiha's home-building, reduced to a flaming torch.

The firemen were already there, but it seemed they couldn't do more than keep the fire from spreading further away. The cops were there too, keeping in check the journalists which were circling around like as many vultures circling around a dying thing. I saw Uchiha Sr, with his wife, poker faced and standing straight as a stick under the hungry stare of the running cameras - they looked like they had been dragged out of a very private party. Itachi was there too, with Anko - two cops were restraining him, keeping him from running into the inferno. He was screaming and struggling - "Let go of me! My brother's still inside! Let me go!".

I saw all this in a red glimpse from behind my mask.

My earpiece was crackling and spitting info - _strangers on the site spotted, unnatural fire, people inside, interception on the way._ I had stopped paying attention at "people inside", my stare fixed on the building. The moves of the flames showed that at least three persons were inside - and two of those stank like chakra. The other one was a kid.

I had notified to my teammates that I had spotted survivors and was gone before they could have made the smallest move to keep me from going.

My earpiece yelled.

I landed through a window which had exploded outward under the strain of the fire, on the floor where I had seen movement.

It was like diving into Hell. Before I had even moved further in, I dodged a blow coming out of nowhere, out of the flames. The next one, coming from somewhere else and someone else, was already on me though, and I gave it back, my eyes wide open.

A beam of fire separated us, scratching my right arm. I was already panting - our masks weren't designed to be used into fire for more than a few seconds, and it was only giving me a relative protection. It was feeling like it was already melting on my face.

The next blow send me sprawling on the floor, and I hit back, struggling blindly. The roaring of the flames were covering every other noise.

An explosion covered the sound of the fire from a bit too close. I felt something raining down on me where I was laying, but the unbearable heat was grilling my sensations down. The one who had put me down on the floor brutally let go of me. Impossible to see them after that.

I saw a path through the blazing inferno. The kid was further in, laying still on the floor. I grabbed him quickly, pressing his face against my uniform-clad chest - I couldn't do anything more to protect him from the flames or the smoke.

I had to get out, fast. The uniform was heat- and fire-proof only for a short time - same as for the mask. I had trouble seeing stuff through the visor already.

There was only walls of fire around us. The flames were blocking every way. I searched frenetically for an exit, my left eye darting to every direction.

A window. Nothing more than a gaping hole vomiting fire, but it was a window, an exit. I jumped out.

The landing was brutal - I protected the kid as well as I could, taking the worst part of the shock on me.

And then... it seemed kind of slowing down.

An emergency medical team was there, taking care of the kid. I was vaguely feeling the crawling burning that was eating my arm up - it was my right arm... weird, in my dream it had been the left one...

The mask was burning me too - the straps had retracted, and snapped under the heat and shocks. I was coughing my throat out trying to breath. The easiest way to do it would have been to remove my mask, but... my hand didn't want to move.

I had to have broken myself something. Getting some air to pass down my throat was more and more difficult by the second. I was feeling kinda dizzy. Someone suddenly grabbed the mask and tore it away from my face. It didn't help in the slightest - the air didn't want to pass one way or another.

"...swer me Hound! Get back together, don't you dare fall asleep! What the hell are you doing, I need a medic team NOW!"

Zabuza? Hound... we almost never used those codenames, only if we had to call each other before non-nin people... why was he using it now?

... Shit...

I had a brief flash of consciousness - asphyxia dude, it's not pretty, and this coldness sweeping through your bones, that means that you are losing blood on top of loosing water due to the burns - and then after...

... nothing.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOo End 21st chapter oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

_Emily and her camera : for all of us fangirls. The scar-faced fighter in the bar is none other than Zuko from 'Avatar: the last airbender'. Thought it suited him._

_Cross your fingers, the next shouldn't take as long as this one to be up._


	22. Chapter 22

**A shinobi is a high school student like another - 22**

_'Schlafe mein klein - Schlafe gut - Schlafe gut' _'Schlafe gut (Epilog)' Janus, _Schlafende Hunde_

_Unbetaed._

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Most of the time... most of the time there was nothing. There was nothing, not even darkness, or memories, or anything else. Maybe I forgot, too. And when there wasn't nothing, well... it's hard to explain. Sometimes I was conscious just long enough to realize I had been unconscious the moment before. Other times, I was conscious just long enough to realize I wasn't feeling anything.

I don't how long it lasted.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

The TV was on.

You'll notice by the way that there's always a TV switched on, straight in your field of vision, and it's the first thing you see and notice. The color of the wall, if there's a window, what's the weather like outside, if there's someone else with you in the room, no-one cares. There's the TV. And then, there's never the sound up. But it's switched on on the CNN channel or one similar because there's always a channel like this wherever you are.

I needed a few minutes to make my mind go at a slower and somewhat less hysterical tempo and really watch the TV. The videos, of a rather poor quality, seemed to have been broadcasted in an endless loop. Don't ask me how I knew this - maybe I had already saw them a thousand time but didn't remember it. A burning building, firemen doing their best, one more explosion, an hysterical teenager, a dark shape... wait a bit - a dark and smoking human shape which jumped from a window carrying something, which fell to the ground and didn't get up; a second dark shape and then someone must have shut off the camera because everything went black.

I blinked my eye, suddenly aware of the tiny move. And suddenly aware that beside the tube that was breathing for me, I could feel next to nothing. My first reaction was to sit up. My body didn't cooperate and didn't even seem to understand my brain's order. Nothing moved.

I knew this ceiling, this walls, the window at the foot of the bed.

I knew this feeling of lightness, of my-body-but-not-my-body.

I realized I had closed my eye only when I opened it again. And I didn't swallow a puff of oxygen put almost directly in my lungs quite in time, which made me want to cough, which blocked the second puff - it hurt, down inside.

"... 'kashi, Kakashi, take it easy, calm down and breathe..."

I noticed and heard Rin only when she put a hand on my chest, forcing me to calm down. I did as she ordered, the tube leaving with one deep breath, my throat raw after it. The first breathe I took on my own made me tear up and cough. Rin put an oxygen mask on my face - she had kept talking and talking, but I hadn't heard her.

I could feel everything. I could feel everything and it wasn't exactly good news.

I forced myself to breathe slowly, trying to deal with the pain. Promise, I won't jump from a window ever. Or from a flaming building. But the bad guys, I can't do anything about it.

I vaguely realized I was gone back to la-la land.

The kid!

How could I have forgot about the kid?!

"Rin," I wanted to say. All that managed to get out was a low croak - I wasn't about to say anything understandable. I felt my lips chap some more, and I didn't even wanted to thing about what was sliding in the back of my throat.

I knew Rin was next to me, even if I didn't dared move a bit - the pressure on my left hand was enough.

Shit.

The guys in black on the TV - the video was still running - it was Zabuza and me. Talk about a secret organization. Why those images hadn't been forbidden already? And the guys who had attacked me in the building, had they been picked up by our forces? How long had I stayed out? What had happened after? And the kid, the kid...

I croaked again, and it turned into a short lived moan of pain. I would have cried with frustration if I wasn't already being crying - an annoying side-effect of the cocktail disorientation and painkillers; it was always make me cry like a child.

I would have appreciated to have an inventory of fixtures, and how much I would have to cough up to be back on my feet - 'cause just with what I could feel, I wasn't about to get out of here with a mere new coat of paint.

Rin hadn't stopped talking. I hadn't grasp anything, beside that Tsunade would be here in a minute. I was thirsty, oh so thirsty, but I was even more afraid of swallowing.

The window was white, totally and completely white. It had to snow - again.

Tsunade was here. I had to have blacked out for an instant, because she wasn't there and the next second she was. I didn't like the expression she was wearing. She was too relieved, too happy - I could see it in her eyes. What had happened? At least now the pain was bearable.

I tried not to move. I just stared at her, until she said what I wanted to know. She lowered her face, sighing, before bringing two plastic cup - one with a straw, the other full of ice chips. She exchanged the mask for tubes in my nose which were running on my face and itching. The ice chips on my lips were a gift from the kami. I would have kissed her, if I could move. My neck seemed strangely stiff.

"I suppose you want to know everything," she said, from where she had took a seat, next to Rin, right in front of me. I couldn't have moved my head anyway.

I hate being vulnerable and weak like that. A napkin blow would have been enough to put me down, if I couldn't manage to do it on my own first. I kept on staring at her - Rin had took the ice from her and was feeding them to me. She ended by talking, giving her diagnostic like me giving a report - cold and to the point.

"Second degree burns on the right arm, the neck, the anterior and posterior faces of the upper torso, as well as on the face. Ecchymosis almost everywhere, cuts which needed stitches on the head and abdomen."

She swallowed. She wasn't currently telling me everything but I would know at a time or another. I knew from where was coming most of my wounds - burns: from the fire, bruises: from the fight and the 'jumping by the window', cuts: from the fight too probably, strange I hadn't felt them at the time. I was rather surprised I hadn't broken anything. She continued.

"I could speed the healing of the burns of about 50 per cent, and the stitches will come off in two to three days' time. The rest will heal naturally."

She stopped there, and I closed my eye. She had told me enough for now.

I carefully felt the degree of humidity of my mouth, and deemed it enough for what I needed.

"The kid?" I rasped out, coming more like a croaking hiss than like words.

They froze suddenly. It was enough for me, they didn't need to say anything.

"Oh, Kakashi, I'm sorry..."

No, no, shut up, don't say anything, don't , don't, SHUT UP! Not being able to produce more than hisses and low croaks was maddening, and the pain rising from my chest with each breath was only adding to the non-physical pain.

Some of my hisses must have been coherent enough, because they didn't try to say anything more.

I cursed my own uselessness, later, a want to scream and yell tightening my chest. And this, even if my logical brain kept on yelling 'till deaf that it had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with Obito.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

I had woken up on the 27th of December, three days after the fire. I had the details of it only when Zabuza came two days later.

Kamis be blessed, he didn't mention the kid.

The reason why Tsunade had been so worried, was that I had stopped breathing - and it happened in Zabu-man's arms. I saw the moment when this big beast of him nearly cried, when he entered my room. He covered it with jokes and bullshitting, then gave me the full debriefing - and that against all rules and regulations - ; he knew as well as me how we hated having to stay on the side and in the dark.

The fire was evidently the act of an arsonist - the firesquads had found gaz tanks in the ruins; that could have been normal if said tanks hadn't been five and too full, ready to blow up. And then, all the flames hadn't been natural ones - not natural as in 'katon', the fire jutsus.

There was some fucking missing-nins with Otsuka. 'Cause, of course, it was Otsuka we had to thank for the show. The war had exposed itself, and the first move of the enemy had been to expose us - or, at least, to try to expose us.

Zabu-man gave me the why about the videos on TV. A part of the team had managed to stop the cameras or to scramble their video, but one smart ass and his mobile phone had escaped the net. Before one of the heads of services or one of our undercover agents realized it, the phone video was the joy of every TV channel. To shut it at this point would have raised more questions and troubles than what the document was already raising on his own, so they had left it. From Zabuza, it had been on no-stop for two days, and was still called up in the news, even five days after the fire.

The craziest theories were running about the 'men in black' - and we had done nothing to stop them, even making up and throwing one or two of our own in the lot. Our organization couldn't come out. We would get the Human Rights people, and every single imaginable laws organizations breathing down our necks, and throwing sticks in our wheels. We're always on a precocious balance between legal and illegal - and it goes more often than not to the latter, seeing as we fight the 'bad guys' on their field with their weapons most of the time. For the public, the ninjas died out with the end of the intervillages wars, and it was better for everyone that it stayed that way.

The video was just adding some fuel to the urban legends, and to the fire of those who were seeing conspiracies everywhere. For now, it could be controlled.

Zabuza didn't seem convinced. And all of this was flirting a bit to close to politics for my tastes.

Uchiha hadn't risked any kind of public announcement; he was contenting himself with doing his job. The security teams had been doubled. Uchiha's wife and Itachi hadn't stepped out of their secondary residence, in Konoha's older districts. Their family had came, and from what Zabuza had understood while leaving his ears open, it hadn't exactly gone well. Reno himself had came to the HQ to ask for a team specifically for Itachi, fearing he would do something to himself.

The King was human finally. Saying this to myself didn't gave me any satisfaction. It didn't gave me anything.

I had the feeling he was feeling as responsible as me for his little brother's death when the real responsible's ones didn't care shit about it.

The kid's name was Sasuke.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

I decided to move on the 30th, at a moment when I was finally alone. There was always Rin or Tsunade by my side. Rin had stayed next to me for the whole three days I was out of it.

The bed moved beneath me when I sat up, and I carefully waited for the room to stop spinning around me before turning to stand up. I took the time to take off all the tubes and others IV Tsunade stuck on me. I was feeling like a pincushion. I even had tubes in places I would have rather not have them.

I clearly felt the difference between a oxygen-flavored breath and a regular one. My lungs throbbed - Tsunade must have forgot to say some little things.

Standing up was something of a challenge - I was grasping the bed with one hand, the other one refusing to cooperate, waiting for the room to stop turning and turning. Then I walked like an old man, limping terribly - my right hip looked like someone had crushed red and blue tubes of paint on it - to the tiny bathroom in my room.

I wanted the mirror.

I didn't recognized the ghost who stared back at me. His head was wrapped from top to eyebrow on one side, and from top to cheekbone on the other. He had pinpoints of livid burn scar tissue on all the exposed part of his face, and when looking at it closely, it looked like the contour of a mask.

I looked like shit. I looked like a pale corpse, a living mummy. But the thing that really disturbed me, was that when I passed my hand on my head, on the bandage, I could feel nothing but skin. My hair had burned away. How was I going to hide now?

I'm hopeless, ain't I?

I won't relate the earful I got when Tsunade found me up. And I won't relate the second earful she gave me, about my food habits - or, rather, my nonexistent food habits. I didn't weight enough, I didn't have enough various vitamins and so and so, I has putting my health at a risk. She threatened to make me see a shrink to keep my place. I saw the bluff for what it was. She was more worried than anything else.

And then, she told me what was wrong with the little lungs of mine; she was suspecting internal burns, which, if it had touched the internal tissues of the lungs and not just the trachea like she thought, could evolve into pneumonia and permanent respiratory deficiency. Great. I got a little seance of laying on of her hands and she insisted I stayed under oxygen and IV till I could get out.

I still had a week to stay here till she was satisfied - truth to be told, it was the maximum amount of time I had agreed on staying here, and I was ready to make off if she complained - and I could go back to my little life. Well, not exactly; I would go back to school, but service and missions were off limits until my body got back to normal. I would just have to exchange training sessions with rehabilitation session for my neck and arm got back to a normal range of movement. And said sessions would be with Shizune. Oh joy.

I wanted to get out of here. Staying a bit too long in one place got this effect on me. And then I wanted to see Iruka.

My things had been piled up on the chair Rin had used, my phone put on the top. I hadn't answered a single message he had sent me. I didn't knew how. I didn't knew with what.

I busied a very large part of my time with sleeping. It kept me from thinking.

I blew up at Rin on New Year's Day. She had been doing her damned best to persuade me not to feel guilty and took on all the blame about... about what had happened, I had enough of hearing her and had replied with my new raspy and low voice things I shouldn't have said and regretted - but I realized that after of course, once the anger had given way to exhaustion.

I had enough of being there - too much bad memories, both old and younger.

The kid's name had been Sasuke.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Zabuza came to see me again the day before the day everyone was supposed to go back to school from Christmas' break.

I looked a bit more like a human being - and I as feeling a bit more like a human too - than the last time Zabu-man had seen me; Raidou had found me a kind of cap-like woolen hat with a large visor that I was wearing askew and low on my face and Tsunade had lost the game between me who wanted to go back to real clothes and her who wanted me to stay in hospital pajamas. I hadn't managed to make her bulge from her being here next to me to every single meal, not moving until I had totally cleaned my plate.

We talked of this and that between me coughing. And then:

"Zabuza? Can I ask you something?"

"Well, shoot away."

"Er, I know you're still assigned to keep an eye on Itachi, but, er... could you... if you get the time..."

"Hatake, spit it out. It doesn't sound like you to ramble."

And he was right. I passed - carefully, 'cause it still hurt - a hand on the exposed bit of my face, my right arm still having troubles with responding to my orders, before talking. "Keep an eye on Iruka."

Seeing the raised eyebrow of my mammoth-sized buddy, I felt obligated to add a bit:

"I don't need your comments on top, okay? Just... keep an eye on him."

He stayed silent for a very brief moment, proving me he already had some ideas on what was going on between Iruka and me - or maybe that he was just good at digesting info, even if it was rather surprising ones. His next question achieved to convince me he had grasped the implications of what I was asking him :

"And if he asks me where you are?"

My hand did its path again, careful to the still stuck to my face oxygen tubes. I kept my head lowered, my eye staring at my legs crossed on the too high bed. Clouds hadn't moved from the sky for a good week now, and snow was piling up in the downtown streets up to fifteen centimeters. The ambient light from outside was enough to justify the absence of artificial light.

"Don't tell him the truth. Tell him anything, I don't care, but don't tell him the truth. Hell, don't tell him anything if you prefer."

He nodded, and didn't add anything.

When he was about to step out of the room, he turned back toward me.

"Hatake?"

"M-m?"

"Something I should know in particular, that you'd rather I keep an eye on him?"

Who was 'him' in the sentence was evident. I was tempted to tell Zabuza about Iruka's headaches, about his manifestations of 'chakra detection', about the unhidden hostility from a good half of the school against him, about the overprotective attitude of his cousins and his friends, about the guy who had tried to kill him, about the hints and bits I was collecting. I shook my head rather slowly, for my neck to bear the move.

"No. I don't think so."

And with that, he was gone.

The kid's name had been Sasuke.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Half of the HQ's population had had to have stepped through my room's doorstep at one time or an other - I didn't knew I was this popular. Even Kodia's girl had came to see me between two shifts - Kodia had grumbled about it the new day. I think the worst visit had been Naruto. Seeing me as white as the bed sheets and the bandages had really upset him, then he had gone back to his normal behavior - and I wasn't in any shape to bear with a battery on legs. I had talked with Rin too. It had hurt on both sides, we weren't 'back to normal', but it was good now.

Sensei had gone on a mad rant about me having done such an unthinkable, stupid, foolish and ridiculous stunt, before attempting to hug me to death. He had brought me back my mask. I have no ideas on how he managed to get it back, but it was now little more than a formless half-melted blob with broken straps and shattered visor. He didn't add anything about the fire, about the actual situation or the state of things in HQ's offices. I was out of it and he left with the order to think only about going back on my feet - it was one more indication, if I needed it, that I was on the sidelines till further news.

In this glorious and wonderful Sunday January the twelfth, eve of the 'back to school from Christmas' break' for yours truly, one week later than everyone, it was time for a quick inventory.

Anyway, I had had one more week under Tsunade's eyes. She had speeded up again the healing of the more serious burns - said serious burns were almost totally healed now - thanks to her magic jutsus, but the rest wasn't really following swift. My organism was still dealing with the aftermath of the aggression, and only time would help.

I was marred with sore bruises on all my right side, and I was still surprised I hadn't broken anything - even if my hip had come very very close from broken seeing the colors on it. I was walking at a snail's speed, or as a old man without his walker; and I had more or less the same amount of energy. But I was up on my feet, it was all that mattered to me.

It had been confirmed that my hair had burned - for some, till my head's skin, leaving first and second degree burns as a souvenir - and Tsunade had shaved down what had been left. I was looking like a fresh new recruit, or a stitched up rag-doll. I had only kept a pirate-like bandage around my eye - without any hair, the bandage and the hat were all I had to hide it.

Zabuza had gave me the latest news from school when Tsunade had finally left me alone with the meals' question - I hadn't gone very far this day, we had just sat at the mess around real hamburgers. Iruka had asked about me two days after the go back to school day, and Zabu-man had opted for the 'I don't know' option. I had a feeling he had noticed two or three little things about the dolphin, but he wasn't seeming ready to ask about it.

Rumor was going to get ballistic with me showing up back at school. I still hadn't find anything as an excuse - and I needed a believable one. I didn't knew what I was going to say to Iruka either.

The kid's name had been Sasuke. I didn't even knew if his funeral had already took place - medias had strangely forgot everything about Uchihas with the New Year. I had a new bit of stone to go say hello on the Uchiha's side of the old cemetery.

OoOoOoOoOoO End twenty second part OoOoOoOoOoOoO

_See you soon_


	23. Chapter 23

**A shinobi is a high school student like another - 23**

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Monday, January thirteenth, 7a.m..

I was sitting on my bed, dressed, but still wired up to those damned IV and oxygen.

I still didn't knew what I was going to invent to stay out of troubles and out of sight... I was afraid that since so many people were bound to have seen the video that had been on tv everyday from Christmas to New Year, too many could connect some dots that were dangerous for me. And dangerous for the security of anyone and everyone implicated with the HQ's activities.

I didn't had much of a choice. I had to tell Iruka about all this, and soon.

Mes fingers against my thigh were tapping a bass line that was playing in my head. The name of the song was eluding me.

I didn't knew who had been charged of my 'extraction' - read here: 'getting out of Tsunadedom'. I had to go back home to take my school stuff. I had to find something to explain my absence to the school authorities - if Sensei hadn't already done it. And I would probably end up late at school too.

The door opened on Tsunade and a tray, followed by Raidou. He made a little smile at me over Tsunade's shoulder whose owner wanted me to gulp down the tray's content. I was fed up with her attempts to fatten me up.

I undid the IV and the tubing running on my face.

"Kakashi, what are you doing? Sit back on this bed and eat - you won't get out of here as long as..." tried Tsunade.

"As long as what? I stayed as long as you wanted - now, either I get out of here with Raidou, either I get out of here on my own by the window and the outer wall!"

I almost jumped out from the bed - which was a rather bad idea since my head immediately began to throb. But I hid it, grabbed the shoes laying on the floor, and walked to the door. Tsunade's face changed color, tried to say something, moved her arms up and down and then just gave up.

"Okay... At least come here tonight for a complete check-up."

She knew very well that I would have gone out of here by the window if she had forced me to stay any longer. I'm not kidding when I say that this part of the HQ bring up too many bad memories. She nodded, admitting defeat, to Raidou who followed me.

I forced myself to stay standing up and walking straight from the Infirmary to the already packed car park. It was only once at Raidou's car - a real one, not like the piece of junk Genma dared to call a car - that I allowed myself to lean heavily against the metal, and to catch back my breath.

" 'Kashi, you're okay?"

I didn't answer Raidou, just motioned for him to open the door. He helped me to get in, and it was a blessing to sit - my hip was literally killing me. It was all my fault anyway, I had had no reason to get so cocky-proud-whatever - but this morning's Tsunade had been the proverbial drop, and adrenaline provided by anger a good fuel. It was the coming down part that wasn't going that smoothly. My throat was protesting against the abuse too - it was still raw and sore, making me croak instead of speaking, and it didn't look like it was about to change soon.

Raidou sat behind the wheel, looking worried.

"You really want to go to school? I can get you home and ask Rin to come over..."

"No, no, I'll be alright... just buy me a giant caffè Moka at the next Starbucks..." I answered from the depth of my seat.

He didn't say anything else until we stopped in front of my house.

"You need something in particular?" he said. He didn't look like he was about to let me get out of the car.

"Rai', I can still stand up, thanks!"

I opened the door with more force than necessary, and got out of the car as violently - which wasn't a good idea, as seen earlier with jumping out of bed and striding. The fit of anger disappeared as quickly as it came, and I leaned against the closed door. Raidou got out much more calmly.

I was acting like an asshole.

"Raidou..."

"...mhm?"

"Forgive me... I..."

"You're fed up with having us on your back, don't you?"

"That doesn't excuse the fact I'm acting as an asshole... First with Rin, then Tsunade and now you..."

The street was a bit more animated than usual - it wasn't anywhere near 'crawling with people', and the trees were still as skeletal as ever between the mail boxes, but there were sound of car's doors slamming in the chilly morning, moms dragging their kids to the family's 4x4, guys kissing their wife and old people looking at the morning's ballet from behind their lacy curtains. There were two stains in this normal and pretty picture and they were parked in front of my house.

I sighed. There was too much stuff happing at the same time and I didn't exactly had my head clear enough to grasp everything. I walked carefully to the door. Raidou followed.

He cleared his throat before stepping in. This fucking place was as welcoming as an empty fridge... and just as heated.

"Kakashi..."

I found my bag where I had left it, against the wall between living and kitchen. I didn't bother looking for what I would forget - as long as I had a piece of paper and some pen, no-one would bother me.

"Kakashi?"

It's only when Raidou waved his hand in front of my face that I understood he had been calling me for the past five minutes.

"You're sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, yeah... was just thinking about something..."

I turned back toward the door, to not have to see him anymore, to not read worry plainly etched onto his features. I had my hand on the doorknob when he cleared his throat again. I leaned against the door, my forehead against the wood, my back to him.

"Please stop beating around the bush. Whatever you have to say, just spill it," I sighed.

I was tired, but I'd have rather die than admit it. I had the nagging feeling this was the way I'd go too.

"They're afraid. Me too."

"Afraid of what?"

"That... That you..."

The house seemed colder than outside, I wanted to get out of here, grab Iruka and locking the both of us in a -big- closet for not to get out before a few months. Okay. I really was tired. I turned back toward Raidou, and he was looking everywhere but in front of him.

"Spill it," I said, not caring about how it went out. He looked at me straight in the eye.

"That things'll go like after Obito's death."

"What?"

"They're afraid - because you're beginning to react in the exact same way, trying to drive people as far away from you as possible..."

"This is bullshit..."

"I understand why you're doing it! It's also your best defense mechanism, and you get it out when you're feeling that you're loosing ground! But you know what? You won't get rid of us that easily this time - when will it go into your thick skull that. You're. Not. Alone!"

"That's not a reason to breath down my neck as if I was about to shatter in a million pieces! That's not a reason to twist the knife in the wound and make me feel sharply that I'm not good enough! That I failed! That ...the kid died because of me! Just like... just like..."

I don't know at what point we began yelling. I don't know at what point my mouth decided to have a direct connection to my brain without my consent. I know that suddenly, I was feeling nothing but the burning tears sliding down my cheeks and tasting like my anger, my shame and my guilt. Raidou looked like he had been hit by lightning on the other side of the room, mouth and eyes wide open. I turned my head, staring at the wall on my right.

"What? 'Kashi, nobody died because of you -is that what you're really thinking?! Kakashi, the kid was already deadly poisoned with carbon monoxide when you got him out! What happened isn't your fault! Obito d... he didn't die because of you either."

I wiped at my eyes with a piece of sleeve, trying to get my breath back. The sobs-wannabe I was keeping inside to the best of my abilities were killing my lungs, and my throat was feeling raw and bleeding again.

"You weren't there..." I whispered.

"What?... Kakashi?"

I raised a hand, lowering my head so as not to have to see him.

"Could we stop the big chick flick moment and actually go? Please?"

"We seriously have to talk about all of this one of this days Kakashi, keeping all that bottled up inside isn't healthy."

"Can we go now?!" I repeated, a bit more violently.

He shut up, but it was clear that we weren't done with this conversation. I'd had rather liked that we were done for good, and not to have to say anything ever, even if it was very distantly related, about what I had involuntarily spilled. I opened the door and closed it back behind him without a word before following him to the car.

The ride 'till school was spent in a deafening silence.

He parked without a word on the students' cars park - there were only empty cars and chatting moms, a guy shutting down his car in a hurry before running for the school's gate and doors. A lone bus rumbled back toward the city after having disembarked its passengers.

I was late. It was better. This way, there was less people to see me pathetically drag myself in the halls.

I got out of the car more slowly than earlier, and closed the door with as much precautions, before beginning to limp my way to the gate.

"Hey, Kakashi!"

Raidou had his window down. I just turned my head toward him - but I looked at the roof of his car, not at his face by the window.

"Sensei took care of all the administrative troubles, so don't worry about all of this."

I didn't trust my mouth enough for the moment - I just nodded.

"Okay, so... see you tonight," he said, then rolled up his window and started his car again.

I nodded to him one last time before crossing the school's gates.

The corridors were empty already - I heard one or two lockers shutting quickly, and hurried footsteps. It was rather weird to see the building empty when I knew it was packed... just as if I had stepped into a TV show before the characters arrived. Be nice to me for the present divagation: I had time to kill before making it to the class seeing how fast I was going.

The english classes' room didn't arrive fast enough for my hip's taste. I breathed deep, hoping to have found back a human face since Raidou and me's 'discussion', and finally knocked to the door before stepping in.

Utter and complete silence.

The teacher's substitute, a weasel-looking guy wearing glasses, looked down at me. I kept my gaze on his feet.

"You must be Hatake, it's nice of you to finally join us. Go sat at your place."

I begin to limp to an empty desk - the bastard cleared his throat, making me stop.

"Must I remind you that wearing hats inside is forbidden, Hatake? Please take your cap off."

You just did remind me fucker. I didn't answer, raised my left hand and took off my hat. The silence was suddenly cut by whisperings and muffled exclamations. I kept my eye on the ground. A good thing I had put back the bandages this morning, it was covering a good part of the wounds - but it was obvious I wasn't in top form. For most of the class if not all of it, it was also the first time they were seeing my face.

I didn't exactly want to see how Iruka was reacting.

The substitute resumed his lesson as soon as I sat down, but the whispers disappeared only after the first hour, though I could literally feel the not especially discreet stares that followed. At this stage, it had been a while since I had put the substitute's voice on background, and I was more or less sleeping with my eye open on my chair, pen and notebook open and unseen before me.

I should have listen to Raidou and stay at my place. I wasn't exactly hurting anywhere - I was... tired-empty. The conversation with Raidou had been emotionally draining, and I hadn't been-wasn't exactly in shape to have it. And this was the very reason why we had had it in the first place. And speaking of emotionally draining, I was afraid I wasn't done for today.

I didn't even realized the bell rang, signaling the end of the class. It took Zabuza waving before my eye for me to startle back to reality.

"Hey Kakashi, you're sure you're all right?"

"Yeah, peachy..."

I kept staring at the desk while putting back my stuff in my bag. In the corner of my eye, I could see, behind Zabuza's boots, a pair of tired sneakers - Iruka's. My heart was playing battle drums against my ribs. I... I was afraid to look up and meet his eyes. I was afraid to look up and see that he had put the pieces of the puzzle together and... that he didn't want me anymore...

I was definitively more tired than I thought.

I hold back -poorly- a pain and surprise laced hiss when Zabuza grabbed my right arm to lift me from the desk before dragging me out of the classroom. I had kept my eye on the floor, but I saw the substitute teacher, still looking down at me.

One second later and we were in the crowded corridors. I had hastily put back my hat on - no need for us to attract more attention. Zabuza was still dragging me, and I was forced to follow the move, my hip protesting high and loud against the treatment. Iruka was following us. We finally stopped in a deserted part of a corridor.

Zabuza gave me back my arm, and I had to lean against the wall to find back my equilibrium. My bag slipped down to the floor. zabu-man raised a hand before I had the time to open my mouth, and slammed it against the wall next to my head - on my blind side - forcing me to look in front of me, not quite in his eyes.

"Forget the other a minute-" The other couldn't be anyone less than Itachi - and I was about to indirectly ask him why he wasn't on the King's heels. "-And think about you, shit! What happened this morning for you to look like death fucking warmed over?!"

For Zabuza to swear, he had to be worried - or so angry you'd better be looking for a anti-nuclear shelter.

"Nothing..."

"My ass! And look at me when I'm talking to you man!"

He slammed his hand against the wall again, too close from my head. I couldn't help but jump a bit, and my reaction made him narrow his eyes.

"You're not on the field Hatake. Think about you first - _that's an order." _

He had hissed the last part, hitting the wall with his hand once more to emphasize his order. I saw Iruka above Zabuza's shoulder, frowning at us, but there was worry and something else too in his gaze. I ground my teeth. Zabuza was the operative there, not me. I had to obey to a direct order.

"Go back home Kakashi, call Rin or Kodia or hell even Genma if you want, but I don't want to see you here when you can't even stand on your own!"

He suddenly walked back and left from where we had come - probably to keep an eye on Itachi - but he first passed Iruka who hadn't moved, and pointed me.

"Make sure your stupid ass of a boyfriend do as I said!"

And with that, he left.

There was a awkward moment, and then Iruka literally threw himself into my arms and hugged me as if his life depended on it. I hugged him hard in response, swallowing my breaths as well as I could around the lump in my throat.

_"Oh thank God, thank God you're all right..."_

He had switched back to using his native tongue under the emotion. He stepped back just enough to look at me in the eye, grabbed my face and kissed me, hard. I think panic mode made a fleeting appearance, too many feelings at the same time - relief, want, happiness, affection, trust and a few other I couldn't name - but I don't think he noticed and put his forehead against mine.

_"_What happened to you 'kashi, what happened?"

I could have broke down and cried out of sheer relief. I closed my eye and put my head in the crook of his neck.

"Why didn't you answer my messages? What happened to you?" he asked again.

I shook my head against him. "Iruka... I..." I breathed deep. "I can't tell you, not yet. But I promise, I swear I'll tell you everything soon."

He hugged me more tightly.

"Kakashi... it's frightening me - you're frightening me sometimes, but I know I can trust you."

There was a strange undertone to his voice. I raised my head to seen him, to see his eyes. He looked tired.

"Iruka? Something's wrong?"

He smiled tightly, before glancing around him quickly, in a deliberate manner.

"I should be the one asking this, no? ...I... No, forget it, you'll take me for a nutcase..."

"Iruka! Stop- trust me, okay? Tell me what's wrong..."

I took his hands in mines. He glanced around again, and I guessed and well as felt what he was doing. He was looking for chakra sources.

I think my heart forgot to beat and started back quicker. No-one from the HQ knew, I hadn't said anything yet - please, someone, something, don't tell me Shigeru targets him, please no...

"I... I _felt_ people - people who were following me. I saw some at the pub - _and I could see them even with my back turned._ It's crazy, huh?"

He laughed without any joy in it - full of fear, of doubt. I surprised him by looking at him straight in the eyes, suddenly too serious, jaw tightened. Not Shigeru, anything, anyone but Shigeru...

"Since when?- Iruka, do you see some of them in here, at school?"

"But it's nothing - I must be tired or something, imagining things..."

I tightened my hold on his hands, driven my the adrenalina brought by apprehension, by the fear he could be in danger even there.

"Iruka, answer me."

He hold his breath, searched something in my eyes. What he found, I have no idea. The words that followed were nothig more than a breath.

"Before Christmas. I see you. Zabuza. Itachi. There are others, around school. Not in."

Before Christmas? Damn it, Naruto.

Itachi? Why everything was always happening at the same time? My mental representation raised his arms to the skies and ranted angrily at the injustice of the world.

The bell rang the end of the break. I realized I was breathing too quickly. I put my hands on his shoulders, still looking right in his eyes.

"Iruka, listen to me. Get back to class, and as soon as you can, tell what you just told me to Zabuza, and no one else, and stick to him like his shadow."

"What?"

"Tell him I ask him to keep an eye on you. Please, do it."

I grabbed my bag, before hugging him again.

"Forgive me."

I turned. He caught me back a step later, frowning and worried.

"Wait! Where are you going?"

I wanted to protect him, but there was something else too. I didn't knew this emotion. It was making me forget I ached all over, that there was a gaping hole somewhere in me. I was feeling like I could do anything.

I wasn't going to lose him. I didn't knew from where was coming this certainty, but it was there like a tiny sun.

"To go transmit my informations - and ask for permission to tell you everything."

He blinked.

"I'll explain everything as soon as I can."

The second bell rang, and I left the corridor. I had to go to the HQ as quickly as possible - I had to tell Sensei about Iruka, to ask him for the authorisation to tell Iruka everything, to tell him about Itachi who was like us _and how in the hells it was possible, we should have felt it at some point or another..._

I was abruptly grabbed by my bag from the emptying corridor to an empty office. I lost my precarious equilibrium and landed hard on the ground. The door shut a few centimeters from my feet.

And Itachi Uchiha leanded above me like a vampire from the old Hammer's movies, his eyes red - red and bright and dangerous and not, not normal.

"Hatake. It's time for us to have a little chat."

OoOoOoOoOoOoO End twenty-third chapter OoOoOoOoO

_Happy New Year everyone_


	24. Chapter 24

**A shinobi is a high school student like another - 24**

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

I was... well, not okay, just like the present situation. My right elbow was throbbing badly enough for me to have to force myself not to moan, and my hip was decided to be remembered.

But to tell the truth, I wasn't thinking about anything there, frozen into place. For a moment, I could only hear my own heart beats. There was only one thing on my mind.

Itachi leaned a bit more, his bright red eyes framed by his hair.

_Sharingan._

The set switched back to normal speed, and he grabbed me by the collar before I could do anything, dragged me up and slammed me violently against the wall, not leaving me any moment to react - a bit further on the right and I would have ended impaled on the doorknob. My battle-honed reflexes had deserted the ship; maybe it was a good thing right now.

My left eye, hidden under bandages and hat, was pulsing. I didn't know if it was normal or not - after all, Obito had been the first in what was left of his clan to possess a developed Sharingan since the end of the wars. Two Sharingan had never meet face to face lately as far as I knew. I had to be the one to pass the crash test.

"I'm rather curious Hatake... and I'm also rather protective of my friends."

The pulse in my eye was keeping me from focusing, but not enough not to have heard his words. I gritted my teeth.

"Strange conception of friendship you have here, don't you think? Cut all kind of relation you can have and watch it from afar?"

He grasped my right wrist in answer - hard. Tsunade had sped up the healing process as much as she could, but the parts of healed skin were still thin and fragile under the dressings and the clothes. I bit my lip, and the pain increased - up and up, to the tears in my eye. Itachi was strangely focused on my face as he was steadily augmenting the pressure, just like a brat would have been while ripping the wings off an insect - curious, coldly calculating. As if he was seeing things for the first time.

A new pulse in my eye put things back into perspective - and made me realize it was indeed the first time. My first - and badly upsetting - time seeing with the Sharingan was still fresh in my mind, no matter how much I wanted to forget it. I could remember perfectly to see, to feel like I had been really _seeing_ for the first time, to have to many information at the same time, too fast. Obito had had a full Sharingan.

Itachi was _seeing_ for the first time, and I was the insect. He tightened his hold around my wrist, turning it, putting literally his face into mine. I didn't made a sound. A line of hot liquid slided from my lip to my shin. The skin had broken under his hand and the clothes. My knees weakened, and I was standing just by the hold he had on my collar. I closed my eye and bit my lip some more.

"What's your interest in Iruka, Hatake?"

I would have had some troubles to align words, even if I had wanted to. Itachi's expression didn't change, but he stepped back and let my collar go. I slided down with a skeleton's grace against the wall, sprawling at his feet, panting under the pain shooting from my arm.

His Sharingan had two commas in each eye. And then it faded out, his eyes going from sharingan blood red to their more normal black.

Itachi blinked, frowning, before going back on the bone's bag at his feet. His gaze was... not totally cold, but calculating; not innocent, but haunted. His eyes were swollen too, as if he had cried recently. If there had been more joy in his gaze and a smile on his lips, I could have took him for Obito's brother.

Itachi Uchiha was not a happy person. This thought came out of the blue, and I remembered that Carrot top had asked for a close watch because he was afraid Itachi might do something extrem - or stupid.

He threw a last glance at me before leaving the room, closing the door behind him. I tilted my head back, breathing heavily. Impossible to know if my eye had stopped throbbing or not - my wrist was short-cutting all other sensations.

Heh. Tsunade was going to kill me.

I stayed motionless against the wall for a while. I could feel something hot soaking up my sleeve, but I wasn't in any hurry to see the disaster. I stood up slowly with the help of the wall, my right arm securely tucked around my middle.

The urgency of the ten minutes before this had multiplied tenfold. 'Itachi like us' wasn't just an info anymore, it was suddenly a confirmed reality.

I got out of the school, my phone in an awkward hold in my hand - it was really not the time for him to have been called away, I'd have been in the impossibility to walk till the HQ, even to just ride the bus. Thanks the kami, the person at the other end answered quickly.

" Kakashi? Something wrong? "

"I need to be back at the HQ asap, can you pick me up?"

" You're still at school? "

"Waiting on the car park."

OoOoOoOoOoO

The wind was sharp and cold. I was barely feeling it at all. I had other things on my mind, such as "does someone in the HQ knows about Iruka and had put a watch to confirm it and it's all?". But I perfectly knew it could be that - Sensei was the one to authorize the watchs, and since Zabuza and me were the current high school agents, he would have warned us. The only other possible explanation was "missing-nins are on his heels". There was an even worse alternative to this, "those missing-nins are Shigeru's".

I thought about the last ten minutes too, about the closely seen Sharingan of Itachi, about his expression - rather his lack of expression, and what I had thought about it '_Itachi Uchiha was not a happy person'. _And with all the surveillance they had stuck to their damned heels, how was it even possible that we've missed this?

I was shaking a bit - normal physical reaction before the mental and physical stress. I could feel my sleeve sticking to my skin or whatever the hell was my wrist now.

My heart was beating too loud. Because of fear?...

Raidou arrived a few minutes later - and his face took immediately an expression of surprise-not-in-a-good-sense and worry. He started his engine back as soon as I climbed in.

"What happened to you? -I'm taking you straight to Tsunade."

"No!"

"Kakashi, you look like hell and I can feel you shaking from here! That an o-"

"Don't finish this Rai'. I have to see Sensei now."

He glanced at me, opened his mouth, closed it, focused back on the road. He didn't say another word during the ride. As soon as he parked, I jumped out of the car - I unbuckled my belt, opened the door, I got out, and I escaped the meeting between my skull and the ground only thanks to to Raidou's arms who had shot out of the car like a devil.

"Low blood pressure," he annonced. "I'm taking you to Tsunade" he said, taking a hold of my right arm to put it around his shoulders for me to stay up. I nearly passed out on him.

"Hey hey - what the...?"

He sat me back against the car, and pulled my sleeve up. I weakly turned my head to the other side - it was as if all was spinning around me. I didn't want to see what it looked. Raidou took a loud breathe next to me.

"Rai', I really have to see Sensei - that, that can wait..." I protested weakly, trying to deter him from taking me to Tsunade first.

"What happened?" he asked again.

Things were beginning to stop spinning around me. The car park was full enough to burst - every last car of the staff was there, but no sign of human life. The concrete was iced beneath my ass, just like the car behind me, and I could see my breath forming little white clouds before my face. Our voices were reverberating under the low ceiling.

"Drag me to Sensei's office and you'll know."

He frowned, put back my sleeve into place, and helped me stand more carefully than earlier. My legs trembled under my weight, badly enough to not protest when he kept my arm around his shoulder and his around my middle.

"Two clues," I went on, aware that he only wanted to put me back into Tsunade's care as soon as possible. "One: Not Good. Two: Not Good At All."

"Something to do with the actual situation?" he asked me.

I mentally sighed. I didn't knew exactly what was the situation, but it couldn't be in better shape than about two weeks ago.

" 'fraid so..."

Sensei's office was closed. Raidou knocked, but no one answered. One guy from Info passed by, but Raidou managed to make him stop long enough to ask where Sensei was - in one of the meeting rooms downstairs, with all the others department's heads. We went that way, and fell face to face with Sensei as he was stepping out of the room, Raidou still half carrying me.

"Kakashi?! What happened?"

"Later Sensei, I've got news."

He made a sign for us to enter an unused room down the corridor. I slumped on a chair, Sensei staying up and Raidou off his way in a corner to find a first aid kit - basic feature of every room here.

"You're off duty until you're cleared by..."

"I know!" I rubbed my face. Why had I so little control over my mouth today? "Sorry..."

Sensei took a chair and sat in front of me, frowning.

"Does a watch-out for potential nin have been asked recently?" I started more quietly. And then I hit myself mentally 'cause it wasn't exactly that the most important but, yes, it was, because if someone had been keeping an eye on Iruka lately, this someone could have noticed Itachi - and... I breathed deep and slow to try to calm down and put my thoughts into place.

Sensei frowned some more, surely trying to see where my question would lead. "No, the last one was three years ago..."

"Then we have a chakra-sensitive guy getting followed by missing-nin," I threw.

Raidou jerked his head from the first aid kit he was opening next to me. "Missing-nin or...?" There was no need for him to finish this phrase. There was a chance on a billion that the missing-nins around weren't following or associated in any way with Shigeru. Asking "missing-nins or Shigeru?" was asking twice the same thing.

"You're confirming this guy's abilities?" asked Sensei.

"I suspected so since November, it got confirmed this morning."

"Okay, I'm putting someone on-"

"I'll take care of this - he'll listen to me," I cut Sensei, raising a hand. My effect was a bit spoiled my the trembling of said limb.

I had promised, I had promised him to tell him everything and I wasn't about to let anyone else but me to take care of this. I owed him this. I had no right to keep all of this from him - all of what I was. I.. I'd call myself happy if he swallowed my story - if he didn't took me for mad - if he accepted only to look at me after this.

Raidou had began to pull up my sleeve and undo the mess of bloodied skin and dirty dressings. He leaned his head on one side, cocked an eyebrow, cast a glance at me. "This guy, it's the one who came with you at Rin's before Christmas, isn't it?" he said.

I just nodded in between hissing air through clenched teeth.

"Okay, so now, what's this?" made Sensei with a nod to my wrist.

"Itachi Uchiha and a in-developpement Sharingan."

If Sensei had been drinking anything right now, he would have spat it all back in a big mess. Raidou froze suddenly. The air in the room seemed to freeze too. I maybe should have said it another way, maybe a bit less, well, directly. Not that it mattered much.

"Confirming information?" said Sensei, still a bit shook.

"Visual confirmation approximatively forty-five minutes ago. Sharingan development at level four."

Four for four commas. The maximum was level six, like me - complete Sharingan. To tel the truth, the maximum was level M - 'M' for Mangekyou Sharingan, the legendary ultime level of Sharingan development. The only four known cases of M Sharingan were lost between myth and reality. The little part of Uchiha's archives that the HQ had barely spoke of this stade - and I could understand why, given what one had to do in order to obtain it; or so the archives were saying.

Sensei's eyebrows were nearly meeting each other.

"How that is possible...?" he muttered to himself. "Zabuza knows?" he asked me, staring me in the eye.

"Normally yes - but I wasn't the one to deliver the information."

"Who then?"

"The chakra-sensitive guy."

He raised an eyebrow, then just decided to drop it - the detail of the story weren't the most important right now. He got up quickly, probably to go take care of our new Uchiha's problem.

"Kakashi, I let you handle the chakra sensitive guy, do it your way. And also do so as to have him in here as quickly as possible - but before anything," he then adressed Raidou, "take him to Tsunade."

Raidou nodded and me too, and Sensei left, vanishing quickly in the maze-like insides of the HQ.

I dropped my head back against the high back of the chair. Raidou, silent, closed back the first aid kit. It made a little clic sound, suddenly very loud in the large quiet room. There was only the sound of our breath for a moment, then he breathed more deeply.

"Kakashi, about this morning... you should..."

I closed my eye and swallowed, my jaw set. Now that I had been sitting for a while, I was feeling better, but I could feel a bit too much the sugar I had missed this morning. I had no idea how I was about to do it - especially with Tsunade - but I needed to be at Iruka's at the earliest, as soon as school was out, even if I had to crawl for it. I most especially didn't need to scratch back the crusts left open by this morning's slips of tongue.

His voice faded out in the calm. It wasn't silence - the HQ is never silent, and there's always the buzz of neons lights above our heads. He finally stood to put back the kit where it had came from, walking without a sound as we all learned to do. We were back to back , him in a corner of the room, me in the chair, the chair used by Sensei left in front of me, when he continued.

"I... Just think about it. About talking about all that to someone, someday. Don't let it eat you."

There were things in his voice. Raidou is only six years and some dust older than me - but he's been doing this job for as long as me. The skeletons in the closet and the monsters under the bed, he knows all about them. Some stories I know, I heard of them or put back together enough pieces. He just want to help, as would do a teammate, as would do a friend, as would do the big brother I once had and lost, but now I had another, a different one, that I always had in the end.

I was tired and I would have wanted to not feel anything for a while to put myself together. I was feeling like there was a guinea pig on speed between my ears which was turning, and turning and turning and I couldn't stop it.

The guinea pig shrieks 'Iruka Iruka Iruka' with its little guinea pig voice.

"I'll think about it," I answered Raidou.

I rubbed my eye. When I opened it again, he was there in front of me, his hand outstretched to help me up. I took it.

I spare you the detail of the screams Tsunade made when she saw us. Very quickly - too quickly -, I was back on the bed I had left a few hours earlier, my wrist patched up properly by her magic hands. I didn't protest, even when she insisted on putting back an IV into me.

I felt asleep as Raidou was still in the room. I would have wanted to speak about Iruka and that I had inside something that tasted like fear and I knew why and I didn't at the same time. I'd have wanted to tell about Itachi who looked like Obito without a smile, and that he wasn't a happy someone...

It wasn't to Rai' I could have said all of that, it was to Iruka if only he knew. And he was about to know, even if... even if...

When I woke up a bit later to go back to sleep for a few hours, Raidou wasn't there anymore, and there was a giant caffé Moka and a sandwich on the night-stand.

OoOoOoOoO end 24th part OoOoOoOoO


	25. Chapter 25

**A shinobi is a high school student like another - 25**

OoOoOoOoOoOo

_'let me apologize to begin with_

_let me apologize for what i'm about to say_

_but trying to regain your trust_

_was harder than it seemed_

_and somehow i got caught up in between_

_between my pride and my promise_

_between my lies and how the truth gets in the way_

_the things i want to say to you_

_get lost before they come_

_the only thing that's worse than one is none' – In Between, ''Minutes to midnight'' Linkin Park_

OoOoOoOoOoOo

The infirmary was cold and silent when I finally really woke up. I gulped down the cold coffee and the sandwich before grabbing the few things left on the chair and quietly slipping out. Tsunade wasn't around, nor Shizune, but it was no reason to let my guard drop.

I got out of the HQ like a ghost - okay, like an old ghost in need of a walker - the majority of the agents walking through the corridors without seeing me, too busy to notice me.

My watch was saying it was five in the afternoon when I parked my bones at a bus stop two blocks from the HQ - my head wasn't spinning anymore, but going to Iruka's only by my own two feet with what little energy I had would have been one of my stupidest idea, as well as one of the last. Iruka had to be at his place at that time. I hoped he wasn't alone right now. I hoped he'd be when I'd made it to his door.

My half empty stomach twisted on itself during all the bus ride - a chance the bus was half empty too in this direction, transporting only little granmas with grey locks and flowered baskets. The grey streets whizzing by the windows between two stops did nothing to distract me from the thoughts spinning round my mind.

How in the hell was I going to begin this? What in the hell was I going to say? Please, made that he wasn't being watched right now.

I stopped one stop before his street - ninja one day, paranoid always as we say between us. There were people out, people walking, kids dragging their mother by the hand toward shop's windows still lightened up with Christmas' lights and decor, kids gathered together with bikes and skate-boards, rests of dirty snowmen piled on the sidewalks. I walked down the street, my hat pulled low 'till my eyes.

When I could make out the green wood circling the windows of the 'Ocean's shore', the wind suddenly chilled - or maybe it was only me. In any way, there was something wrong, something different from the other times. No one paid any attention to me, leaning against the shadows of a blind wall. I decided to do something incredibly stupid, seeing how low I was running on chakra: I pulled my hat away from my eyes, pulled the bandages off and opened my eye.

The 'Ocean's Shore' was crawling with energies at the pub's level - I was expecting this. But two chakra's systems caught my eye - they were in the pub and were way too organized to be mere civilians. My heart leaped into my throat when I saw another, even more organized than the earlier two, higher in the building - higher and at level with Iruka's studio, with Iruka.

I hastily closed my eye - even after a few seconds, I could feel the drain on my energy's reserves, and I'd rather avoid collapsing in the middle of a street - wasn't very discreet. My heart was loud in my chest hammering like mad against my ribs. I swallowed and breathed deep.

Let's see what we have: little me, usual weapons hidden in their places but nothing as backup and not suicidal enough to try jutsu in my state - the situation, not far from unknown and with a big Not Good in the horizon.

I immediately 'folded' all my chakra into me, trying to dissimule the best I could my energy traces in the same way I had asked Naruto to do before Christmas. It was the only way to get closer from the 'Ocean's shore' without being spotted, if the 'spotted' part wasn't done already. Oh kami, I hoped I hadn't been spotted yet...

I slipped through the crowd, moving with the mass to get closer from the building - the only safe way in I could see from here was the backdoor - avoiding the pub and the two at this level. With some luck, I'd caught the one upstairs unaware and we'd get the hell away from here fast. Iruka wasn't safe at his place anymore, I had to move him to the HQ.

I opened the door quietly, climbed the stairs - I could hear by the closed door that led to the pub that the place was packed. But the stairs were silent... too silent, just like the first floor, and the second one. I ghosted on Iruka's floor till his door. I stayed flat against the wall and turned the doorknob as slowly as possible - I had not the time nor the reserves to glance through the door, not that going in blind was a better course of action.

The door opened - I reached to the closest moving shape, a metallic dart hidden in my palm. The blow was turned around and neutered almost instantaneously and very discreetly. The same shape took my wrist (not the good one) and roughly dragged me inside. I hissed under the pain, muted but still there. By the time I came down from 'mission mode' and adrenalina, the person had revealed his identity - not that hard once I could see the clothing -, hugged me hard enough to asphyxiate me or shatter my ribs, whichever came first, and Iruka was standing behind with not a better face than this morning.

"Kakashi, you couldn't came at a better time, I have no idea what to do with the guys downstairs!"

"...Haku?! What are you doing here?"

He finally released me and stepped back to be able to look at me in the eyes without having to break his neck - Haku is a little head shorter than me, and two big ones shorter than Zabu-man - before explaining. Haku closed the door and locked it before leaning against it, apparently uncurious. It was very far from his usual comportment I noticed with a little part of brain as I was listening to Haku.

"Zabuza called me, asking me to stay with Iruka as soon as school was out and until you came back - we were followed from school to here, and the two guys down didn't move since then!"

"They won't move further," said Iruka from his spot next the door. He elaborated a bit when Haku's silence got a bit insistent. "Syd's keeping an eye on them since he noticed them."

I nodded as a response, but I doubt Iruka realized it: it was his back that was facing us. I suddendly frowned - what could Syd do against two missing-nin? One more mystery...

Haku hadn't let go of my wrists since he had dragged me in, but it was only now that he seemed to realize it. He let go of them, frowned when I couldn't help but hiss in relief. He grabbed my right hand, and brutally pulled up my sleeve, uncovering the new bandages already stained with blood - and the other ones. Iruka was facing us now, and I didn't knew what name to give to his expression.

"That wasn't there earlier," said Haku, his finger on my wrist. "What happened?"

"Itachi."

Iruka came closer, frowning and still wearing this expression. He visibly swallowed when seeing the others bandages.

"You were right," I told him, turning away from Haku's hands still on my sleeve to look Iruka in the eyes. "Itachi's like us, even more dangerous since he's untrained."

At those words Haku jerked his head up, and grabbed my chin with one hand.

"What are you saying?"

"Haku, can you make sure no-one disturbs us?" I cut him before he could do more than open his mouth: "I talked to Yondaime before coming here."

His mouth made a loud 'clac' when closing, his jaw tight. He let go of me, walked to the door and closed it quietly behind him, even when it was obvious he wanted to slam it. I didn't wonder more about his attitude even it was surprising - now was just not the time.

The flat was suddenly silent. Not exactly silent to be exact, there was the trickle of voices and music filtering from two floors down, the noises of the street muffled by the window above the rumpled bed, the sound of my own heartbeats, too loud in my ears. Iruka wasn't looking at me. I was looking in front of me. There was a layer of frozen snow on his windowsill. Iruka shuffled his feet a bit, looking everywhere but at me standing still in the middle of his place - I could see it from the corner of my eye.

"I..."

My croaking voice seemed too loud. Iruka jumped a bit, startled, caught himself watching me, got back to look at the floor, his arms crossed. I sighed.

" 'd better sat," I finally said to the silence.

He walked to his bed, pulled the cover, sat on it, forearms on his tights. I dropped my useless bag to the floor, and dragged his desk-chair to face him. I copied his stance, hands between my knees before raising them and rubbing my face.

"You're in danger," I said from behind my fingers.

I could have done better as an introduction. Go and tell this to whatever had replaced my brain. I continued before Iruka could do or say anything.

"The guys downstairs, they're the 'adverse camp'. I'm in the other one. If they get you... I'd rather not think about it."

"Wait a second, I'm not getting anything there.Why would they want to 'get' me? What's this shit of 'adverse camp'; you told me you weren't in a gang - and then what happened to you, and what happened with Itachi?"

I was rather happy to let him handle the conversation. Answering questions was so much simpler than trying to put my thoughts into some semblance of order to say something coherent. As for answering...

"Did you watch TV between Christmas and New Year?"

"What does that have to do ...?"

I took off the hat, put it next to my bag. Then I carefully took off my jacket, my sweater, kept my tee-shirt. The gel-like wanabee band-aids on the burns, and the bandages, were here and there and there again, going from my neck to my wrist. There was only the necessary ones left, the skin in between red and swollen, or of a sickly pinkish. I took off the bandages of my head. My hair was barely decided to grow again, not very fast - not fast enough to hide the cuts and marks just healed. I stopped the show there. And I waited for him to draw his own conclusions.

Iruka had took one and one and had come with three. He was far from dumb and would have ended by knowing, even if I didn't had have to tell him. The video had been played and replayed for a week, and I wouldn't have been surprised if he hadn't had began to have suspicions.

"_Holy sh..._"

He literally jumped from the bed, began pacing. He turned his back on me, then turned 'round. I was still sitting on the chair.

"What are you? No, wait, all of the others, the ones I saw, Zabuza, Rin, and all, they the same aren't they? What are you lot?"

Very very far from dumb.

"We're... all that's left of the Ancient Konoha with the monument. Ninja... we protect the city, in the shadows."

"The whole burning thing didn't exactly stay in the shadows. And 'ninja' as in 'ninja's wars'? With only credo: protect Konoha?"

Until there... it was going better than hoped - I had more or less forgot he knew a lot about the ninja and the old Konoha by his uncle. I nodded.

"Even at the expense of your own lives?"

My mind made a 180. His voice had dropped to Arctic-like qualities I had heard him use only once. And why this...? I made a move of head and shoulder that could have said everything and nothing. My life, it was this, it was the HQ and the dark streets of Konoha at night. It wasn't going further. We were all expecting to die in our line of work. I was expecting to end this way. But... it wasn't exactly easy to explain. Iruka suddenly frowned to my non-answer. He started pacing again.

"Is it legal?"

"Those who need to know know we exist. We stay out of politics."

We only intervened when politics were being threatened to be shot or worse, but it wasn't the question.

"Who's in the other camp?"

"People like us, but who sell their skills to the highest bidder. Traffics, mafia, this kind of stuff."

Why wasn't I explaining to him the situation as it was, with Otsuka and all the shit he had done and the war brewing up if it hadn't began yet? I don't know.

"What do I have that's so interesting those guys want me?"

"I don't know exactly... No, wait, listen. Not anyone can be a ninja, do what we can do. It's transmitted down from generation to generation, into clans, families. But there's also what we call 'spontaneous mutations'."

"And I'm one, a mutation? Feel like being in the X-men comics - what's next, the Professor X wheeling through the door?"

"If we were in the X-men, you'd be Cerebro - but one who'd spot chakra, not mutants. Chakra, it's the energy we use, not very noticeable, not known outside the ninja's archives and nothing to do with anything mystical. I think it's because of this you have your headaches."

He had stopped, turning his back on me, as far as possible in his flat, his arms around him. He kept silent for a while. I put my sweater back on.

"You want to get me you too? Or do you say 'recruiting' in your camp?"

I jumped a bit when he finally spoke up. His voice was bitter - painful.

"It's..." He didn't leave me the time to say one more word.

"How long have you been targeting me?"

"Iruka, I..."

"Have you slept with me just to recruit me?!"

He had turned back toward me abruptly, fists tights, arms crossed. I felt like a slab of lead fell down to my stomach, a frozen one.

"No-"

"Why should I believe you?!"

"I never lied to you- I thought you trusted me, what changed?"

Fear was making me lose the little control I had over my words. Fear, and the emotional roller coaster I had been dragged on since this morning, and a bit of anger too, that he could think I would sink so low as to use him against himself - and there was something else too, something I didn't waste time to analyse. _Fucking emotional roller coaster. _

"Everything changed! And I'm not sure I want to trust you! _No anymore_!"

I wanted to vomit, and my throat was tightening at the same time. I struggled to catch back my breath.

"I... Nevermind what you think, you want (I hated myself for even saying it), you're in danger..."

"Out."

"Iruka! Listen to me!"

"Take your things and get out! I don't want to see you again! Not you, nor anyone else!"

His eyes were red, and he was literally shaking with rage, and something else I couldn't qualify. Me, I think I slipped into shock, into autopilot. I put my hat back, my jacket, grabbed my bag. He turned his back on me. I went to the door, opened it and closed it behind me without a glance for him.

I barely noticed Haku sitting against the wall in the dark corridor. I passed before him. He didn't say anything. I don't know if he left then.

Before I stepped in the stairs, I heard a noise behind me, as if someone had thrown a glass or something fragile and heavy as hard as he could against a wall - or a door.

OoOoOoOoO

I took the bus to go back to my place. It was night when I stood before my door for the second time of the day. I didn't notice my hands shaking when I opened the door to the bleak light of the street. I didn't notice the dark inside and the heating turned off when I closed back the door. I didn't care. I was... numb - all hollow inside. All hollow but heavy, so heavy, too heavy.

I slipped to the floor against the door, the different levels of wood digging into my back. I wasn't feeling anything.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO End twenty-fifth part OoOoOoOoOoO


	26. Chapter 26

**A shinobi is a high school student like another - 26**

OoOoOoO

_"I need some sleep... I can't go on like this" Eels, 'I need some sleep'_

OoOoOoO

I woke up to the sound of my phone yelling a few meters away from me. I don't know when I had fell asleep - it was more plausible that I had half passed out on the couch. No idea of what time it could be; the bleak light filtring through the blinds wasn't helping any.

The phone stopped, and the noise seemed to echo in the silence of the house. I sat up, my hands dangling between my knees and my eye staring at the cold wooden floor between my tired shoes. Not a sound outside.

The feeling of void at the bottom, far away, had mixed itself to this thing which tasted like fear in my stomach. The night hadn't helped. I was feeling like I could shatter my body like a empty and too heavy shell just by pushing too hard.

My phone made a 'biip'. Stopped. Made a 'biip' again. Stopped.

I reached to grab my bag. I grabbed one end, and all the contents not kept in by the open zipper slipped out to spread on the floor with a clatter. The phone slided to stop against my foot, the little screen of a bright blue spitting the time at me. _1135 you dumbass._ Then the little screen darkened his avenging halo to go back at being only a little black screen - before a new 'biip' brought the infernal machine back to life. I waited without realizing it another blue resurrection to pick it up.

The message that had woken me up was short and to the point. I felt bad to have waited to listen to it and to reply.

" -Kakashi- ", said Sensei's voice, tired in the 'I stayed up all night but sleep will have to wait 'cause I'm needed' kinda way, " -Call me back as soon as possible.- "

It felt like staying the night up coordinating teams, staying the night up waiting for reports, lives at the other end of the mic, behind screens suddenly turned black. Sensei picked up at the first ring, and his first words made me put all the emotions and events of the last ten hours or so aside. I should have done my report at once, whispered the ninja-tool under the surface.

" -Kakashi, status.- "

"In one piece and at my place, Sensei - what's...?"

" -No time. Be at the HQ asap- " And he hung up on this.

I was in the bus before I realized it - the same clothes as yesterday on my back and tired mug between hat and jacket's collar. The streets zipped by in an artistic hazy grey. And no, no, I wasn't thinking about yesterday.

I was thinking about yesterday.

_Shit._

It wasn't supposed to happen like this. That was the worst case scenario, what you think about but never happens no matter what. That had been beyond worse. And now... what was I supposed to do? The part of my brain that could form coherent thoughts was clearly saying that, one, I had blown my private life to hell - my sex life too, don't be afraid of the naked truth -, I had lost Iruka's trust, his friendship too, and I didn't need a shadow of a doubt to say it ; two, I had blown my mission to hell, and I knew I had blown it beyond all attempts to fix it. Iruka would refuse to listen to another nin, whoever it was; he would probably refuse to even see him or her. That was leaving him totally vulnerable to an attempt of 'recruitment' by Otsuka, and I was avoiding thinking about what would happen then. I hoped Sensei had bypassed my asking of yesterday and had put me around the pub - around the pub but well hidden, we didn't needed the europeans to fall on our back too for something like a pseudo-territorial invasion.

I was trying not to think at all, because the only reaction the part of my brain that wasn't forming coherent thoughts but feeling was yelling. Given that I was in the middle of a bus, surrounded by little old ladies with flowered bags, it was far from a stellar idea.

What was mainly giving me the urge to yell was that the accusations he had thrown in my face were right - if one had only one half of the info.

Would have kept on lying to him a better way? wailed a little voice in a corner. Said little voice I promptly crushed down, 'cause it had nothing to do here, 'cause I had promised to tell the truth. Because Iruka deserved better than more lies. The feeling at the bottom of my stomach came back with a vengeance, hard enough to make me grind my teeth to the point of pain. The closest old lady with a flowered bag glanced at me and changed seat.

So I put everything neatly aside, put my best mask on my face and stopped two streets before the HQ.

OoOoOoO

The HQ was just like it always was - the offices bustling with activity, the low sound of bodies hitting the tatami mats from the training rooms' corridors, the furious clicking of keyboards and crumpled papers left and right. It didn't kept me, though, to notice like blanks in the offices, like absences; and then those absences weren't just in the offices anymore.

I knocked on Sensei's door.

He wasn't in his office - but he had left a message for me, asking me to be in full uniform and at the meeting rooms level as soon as possible.

Something was wrong. Something was really wrong if he needed me even if I hadn't been cleared out for duty by Tsunade.

I turned back, and nearly collided with Haku in his red dress who was busting out of the Info. He avoided me with a step aside, grabbed my arm and dragged me further in the corridors to a quieter place. The frowning looks complete with dark circle under his eyes didn't suit him at all.

"Just so you know, there's a team posted around the pub."

He looked like he had stayed up all night - night shift at the bar probably. I stayed silent, just long enough for it to become uncomfortable, and then I nodded.

"Thanks."

His voice caught me as I was leaving the way I had came by.

"What did he told you that shook you to the point I did the report for you?"

It wasn't an accusation, a judgement, just a question, his voice perfectly neutral. I didn't turn my head to look at him. And the void at the bottom of my stomach mistook itself for a black hole, swallowing me from the inside.

"He was right to accuse me."

And then my footsteps got lost in the noises of the main corridor.

There were new pictures, drawings and lists on the wall, just when you walked in to the lockers and training rooms. It had only been what? Two weeks, three at the most, since I had last stepped foot here. The locker rooms were empty. It wasn't helping any with the feeling I had that something was wrong.

Shrugging on the new uniform that had been waiting for me took more time than expected. I gritted my teeth, trying not to think about the hundred of catastrophic turns of events that could explain this feeling of wrongness, and trying not to undo my bandages more than they already were. I threw my stuff in the locker. My phone escaped again, sliding to my feet. I picked it up - and spend the next two minutes staring at "Iruka" in the contacts list. The phone found itself roughly put back in my bag.

There was a new mask in the locker too, the perfect clone of my old one - and someone had added an old-style bandana, the metal band unpolished and slightly painted in order not to catch the light. The old Konoha symbol was barely readable, but the darkened lines of the leaf and the knife were staring up at me. Obito had had one like this.

I hesitated less than a second before tying it around my head, hiding what was left of my head between uniform collar and mask.

My duty was first and foremost toward Konoha.

The void filling me from the inside screamed.

OoOoOoOoO

Sensei was just stepping out of an apparently agitated meeting room when I got to this level - he made a 'follow me' sign, and I did so at once.

"Sensei..." I began once in the lift. He rose a hand, and I immediately shut it.

"You're not back to active duty, but I need you."

I nodded briefly. Sensei visibly swallowed before speaking again.

"Are you well enough to be able to use the Sharingan?"

It was my turn to swallow uncomfortably. I nodded and answered yes. Yes, I could use it - no need to linger on the amount of time I could use it, nor my state after having used it. If Sensei asked, then he need it, end of the conversation.

Sensei nodded in return, and he didn't spoke again until the doors opened - he got out and I followed him like his shadow. I dared speak as he had his hand on the door knob - we were now at the 'public' level of our meeting rooms, where we could have almost anyone without them getting glimpse of our real activities.

"Sensei, about yesterday..."

He cut me by raising the hand that wasn't busy with the door.

"I'm afraid I have to ask you to try again - Haku's report was clear on this point."

I blinked. The right word to qualify this situation was 'set up'. A tiny part of my mind laughed hysterically while thanking Haku. The void moved, inside.

And then Sensei opened the door.

Carrot Top, more known under the name of Agent Reno Mattura, was laying in one of the armchairs, his feet propped up on the table. Vincent was in one shadowed corner, his arms crossed and his eyes alert. There were rest of sandwiches on the table, a bottle of water, some glasses. And Uchiha Itachi, pacing up and down the length of the table, stopped as we stepped in.

"Mr Uchiha," said Sensei while making a move to introduce me, "meet 'Hound' - you'll understand the necessity of keeping our identities to ourselves. He's the best placed to answer all of your questions, and, was it the case, the only one able to teach you how to use the Sharingan."

I stayed very politely two steps behind Sensei, before saluting the old-fashioned way by bowing, hiding and swallowing the shock.

May I throw my arms to the sky and begin a heartfelt monologue on the world injustice now?

OoOoOoOoO

The ... 'interview' with Itachi went more smoothly than I could have imagined. He already knew quite a lot about what was happening to him - he had a bit of a hard time swallowing the fact that the Sharingan tales weren't just tales, but once that was passed, his questions were surprisingly well thought. I would have even never thought about a couple of ones if it had been me asking Obito, but it was normal of Itachi to be more concerned - while Obito had been alive, me having the Sharingan was the last thing ever I would have thought about. So I had to pull out the answers to his questions from the depths of my memories of Obito, the few Uchiha archives I had been allowed to read and the somewhat extensive knowledge of my family archives.

Reno and Vincent both stayed quiet in their corner - Reno threw in a word once or twice, just to say that some questions wouldn't have answers until Itachi was really one of us.

I paid close attention to my body language as long as I was in the room, so as 'Hound', ninja, would never be associated with Kakashi Hatake, student - I was very not curious to know how Itachi would react to that. The raspy voice I was still talking with was useful at least in separating the characters, I doubted he had noticed my damaged voice in our short encounter in school.

I noticed also that he didn't activate his eyes once - had he already control over it? Or was it going and leaving without control from his part? Don't think I was complaining; the last thing I needed was a blinding headache because of the pulse in my eye in answer to the activation of his. And now that I was thinking about it, I was beginning to have some drafts of theory about this - a tour to the medical archives was in order, if Tsunade herself couldn't help.

I don't know how long we stayed in this room, but when Itachi left, Reno and Vincent on his heels, and a team probably already on their path, the light out had gone down, almost enough to be qualified of night. I stayed a moment in the meeting room, long enough to untie the mask and rub my eyes. Then I left in quest of Sensei if he hadn't gone home yet.

He found me before I found him. And I noticed all the more the strange activity of the offices.

"Sensei."

"How did it went?" he asked, going through a handful of paper before signing every single one.

"A warning would have been nice, this guy can't stand me - and the game with 'Hound' won't last forever with his eyes." _And I couldn't save his brother._ The thought startled me, and I swallowed before going on. "He seems to be taking the whole thing quite well - I don't know for now if he already has any control over his abilities, but I suppose I won't know till he's in."

Sensei sighed, his head bend over the papers.

"We need him; and we can't take the risk of him being recruited by anyone else, it's too dangerous - for him as for us."

"Sensei," I said, putting my hand on the desk he had 'borrowed' to sign, "I'm not sure to be able to teach him anything." He raised his head, and I used the time to take the mask off. "You know as well as me that I don't have a normal Sharingan - and that I have no control over it."

"You're the only option Kakashi - you're the only known alive person in all of Konoha to have both the Sharingan and the appropriate knowledge. Be there tomorrow at first hour," he said, going back to the papers and closing our discussion.

I hung the mask to my belt and pulled the bandana to cover my eye before turning around.

"Kakashi, one last thing."

"Sensei."

"I'd like you to attempt contact again as soon as possible."

"Yes Sensei."

I saluted with a brief move of head before stepping out for good. _Between a rock and a hard place..._ Sensei's tone of voice had left no place for time : I had to go see Iruka again tonight, and I was responsible for teaching Itachi should he decide - not that he really had a choice in the end. Not that I had one either. I just had to follow the orders.

The bench in the lockers was terribly comfortable, and I wouldn't have minded staying on it for five more minutes if a team hadn't come in at that point. I hurried to take off my uniform and pass my clothes back on. I grabbed my bag, careful not to draop anything this time, my phone in hand - my phone black and dead for lack of battery.

Night had fully fell upon Konoha when I sat at a bus stop, the lampposts bathing the deserted streets in a dirty orange glow. I wasn't feeling the cold seeping through my clothes to my bones, nor my knees taking themselves for some extra Jell-O.

_Iruka..._

OoOoOoOoO

I didn't spot the team placed around the pub. I was a bit more focused on how to climb to Iruka's place. The back door seemed like the best choice.

The back door wasn't closed. There was a big guy behind, in the shadows - one of Iruka's uncles, and he wasn't exactly easy-gooing-looking.

"What do you want?" he said, his jaw playing under the skin.

"Ehm... see Iruka?"

The lopsided smile and the idiot act didn't had any effect on this guy. He stayed blank. I tried to get around him, but he grabbed me by the arm and put me against the wall before I could escape him.

"Listen to me ninja-boy, we're taking care of our own."

This wasn't the place for the idiot act anymore.

"As we do."

"Oh, really? What about the operation, how long was it now? Three years ago... the one which ended in slaughter - you're taking very good care of your own... No, see, the thing is that we don't appreciate it that much is others putting their nose in our business. Or getting a bit too close from some of us."

The operation... the operation three years ago... _Oh Obito oh shit_ How did he knew that?! Business? Getting too close? Unaware of the storm raging under my scalp, the guy went on.

"And I appreciate it even less when a little shit of a shinobi of your kind is taking my nephew for a ride."

His grasp on my arm tightened, hard enough to bruise - maybe even hard enough to break.

"I never 'took him for a ride'," I gasped from between my teeth.

As a reply, he narrowed his eyes and his hold tightened again, before he put his other arm across my throat, making it impossible to swallow.

"I'm asking again. What do you want?"

He was strangling me, black creeping too quickly from the edge of my vision, and all I could reply was a pained gasp.

The lamp over us switched on abruptly, followed by a voice I knew - a voice which startled the aching void inside.

"Franck? What are... Kakashi?"

The uncle -Franck- released me brutally, leaving me to slide to the floor. Oho, forgot to eat again, me... Iruka was looking at us from the stairs.

"What do you want?"

"Iruka... I promised you, I told you everything..."

"Get out."

He turned his back on us, ready to climb back the stairs. I got up using the wall behind me, my knees shaking.

"Iruka! How am I supposed to say-"

"_I don't need neither you neither that to top it all!"_

He took the stairs four by four, and I heard every single step as I heard his door slamming. I stared at nothing in front of me.

Franck opened the door and leant against it. I got out and the door, as it closed behind me, echoed.

There were two thoughts battling for domination in my mind. One was : _ Oh shit, oh shit, they're from the European Organisation._ The other was a very big nothing.

I found myself before Rin's with no recollection as to how I had walked to there.

OoOoOoOoOoO End twenty-sixth chapter OoOoOoOoO

review please?


	27. Chapter 27

A shinobi is a high school student like another - 27

OoOoOoOoO

Light. Warmth. If I could keep my eyes closed for a moment still, the world would go away and leave me alone. I could imagine that the person next too me was someone else, that the fingers tracing the edges of burns on my head belonged to someone else. If I could keep my eyes closed for a moment longer... If I could fake sleep for a moment longer...

"Do you want something to eat?"

I answered no with a move of my head from between her arms. What need did I had to keep dreaming? Reality was coming back to kick my ass fast enough as it was. Rin didn't get her arms from around me, and I didn't try to get away. She nudged me after a while, forcing me to wake up completely.

"Go take a shower before I change your dressings."

And then she got out of the bed, walked to the kitchen, her legs white under her too-large and well-worn Tee-shirt. I rolled on my back and contemplated the ceiling. My hair -what little of it that had grown back, just enough to guess the skin beneath- felt sticky and dirty under my fingers. My stomach growled. I drowned its protests under the water, focusing on the sound of the spray and the ache of the burns.

Rin sat a bowl of milk-droned cereals before me when I sat in the kitchen. I didn't even try to protest, and she put back clean bandages around my arm while I ate slowly the soggy stuff - I had no more want to puke them out later than to eat them. She kept her hands on my arm when she was done.

"What happened?"

It could still have been night time. The table was shining white under the three little lamps thingies hanging from the ceiling. The fridge, covered with artistically doodled papers, some pictures and magnets, was lazily purring. The clock on the wall opposite the window, shaped like a smiling and totally high flower, was softly tick-tacking in the silence. The cars were passing outside, lower, without attaining us. I hadn't said a word since I had came in.

"Kakashi?"

I opened my mouth, staring at the slightly chipped edge of the bowl, closed it. I didn't knew how to begin. So I didn't began at all.

I don't know really how to explain this reluctance to explain, just to talk to Rin at this point, which made that I left her place for the HQ with just a "thanks" at the end. I didn't want - I couldn't tell her what was going on. I even couldn't just to explain the slow ticking bomb named Itachi - and anyway it was linked to Iruka.

Was it the perspective of admitting a weakness that was keeping me from talking? Not that I was considering any of what was happening as a weakness, but it was something an enemy could use against me... The lessons that had been beaten into me while growing up were far from erased from my mind - and I doubted it would ever cease to have a part in how and who I was.

I had never told her I had been with Tatsuki last year either.

_Kami, I'm so messed up. _

OoOoOoOoOoO

I rode the bus only for half of the way. I climbed down earlier than sheer paranoia and classic prudence would have wanted, but the metal box full of people had put me ill-at-ease. The low pain accompanying each step was surprisingly welcome - I could still feel something. I didn't stop to wonder if that reaction was very normale, or healthy, or no to both. I was too numb, too far - even the cold couldn't get me to wake up completely.

The activity at the HQ was as weird as yesterday - the feeling of _not right_ was even stronger. The car park wasn't full despite the not early time of the morning. The noises of the busy offices seemed exaggerated - as if two people were trying to make as much noise as fifteen. The training rooms were empty save for one or two too serious looking poker-faced teams - too serious looking for an usual week day.

All of this made me shiver, and I tried to not think about the silent locker room while shrugging my uniform back on. My bag - and my dead phone - rejoined my clothes in the back of the locker. I would need to go back to my place some time later. Three days spent with the same shirt was beginning to smell like it. Truth to be told, I was more bothered with my phone.

Itachi wasn't in any of the so called public room; Reno nor Vincent were there too. I left a scribbled piece of paper with my location for the day on Sensei's chair, his office empty. I wondered if he had got some sleep - he hadn't sounded ready to call it a day when I had called him from Rin's to give the lastest developments. He had sounded resigned when I had told him that at least one member of Iruka's family was with the European Organisation.

I wondered what was going on too - it felt like the calm before the storm, or the cyclone's eye. None of those scenario was particularly enjoyable to think of. Then I went to the Infirmary on my own. I didn't let Tsunade fuss on me, just got her to allow me in her archives. Tackling one problem at the time was the logical way to go at it - that meant I didn't look through the doors leading to the proper infirmary, and I didn't wondered about Tsunade's attitude who hadn't try to fuss on me. And then, there in the Medical Archives, I knew what I was looking for: an explanation, a commentary, anything really about the interactions between sharingans. The ancient scrolls and the more modern data piled up without me noticing.

I had tied the badana back on my head and crossing my face, Konoha's symbol on my eye and a hole in my heart.

OoOoOoOoOoO

I spent the entire day locked up in the archives - and nearly fell flat on my face when I stood up. I had forgot to eat something again. But that wasn't the most important. I had found -maybe- the answers to my questions, but I would really knew only once I'd proof-tried the theory. Itachi apparently hadn't showed up in here - no one had come to drag me off or had called my on the comm. I hadn't seen Shizune either, even if I had expected her to hunt me down through the building and drag me to rehab - which I had managed for now since I had left.

I didn't saw Sensei either.

I kept my gaze locked on the lockers room's floor when I put back the civilian outfit on. Same when I glided through the corridors, when I stepped out - when someone put his hand on my shoulder, forcing me to stop.

"Kakashi."

It was Zabu-man. I barely turn my face toward him to show I was listening.

"You're staying at our place tonight," he said, and I frowned, the move lost under my hat. He added in a whisper: "Yondaime's orders, we've gotta talk."

I nodded, still frowning - and I noticed he was in civilian clothes, not in the uniform, as if he had came directly from school, and this despite the advanced hour of the afternoon and school closed for a few hours. He motioned for me to follow him - from the car-park to his place, the trip was silent, night falling down and casting reflections of lampposts, neons lights and traffic in the windscreen. There was next to no-one in the streets, until it turned completely deserted at the foot of his building.

Haku welcomed us with a smile and a bathrobe on, his hair sticking in every direction, looking like he had just crawled out of the bed. He pecked me on both cheeks before kissing his man.

"Hi - forgive the outfit 'Kashi, I was on the night shift yesterday and again tonight," he turned closer from Zabuza,"Dinner's already done, you just have to warm it up, will you be all right with it?"

"I'm not that bad, Haku."

I turned away from the couple, my throat closing up. They spoke lower for a few moments before Haku went off toward their room, sounds of shower following. Zabuza put his bag and coat away. I had stayed in the middle of their living room, bag on my shoulder. I heard a sigh.

"Kakashi, put your stuff down somewhere."

I obeyed without even thinking about it, leaving bag in the corner acting as an entrance, jacket and hat next to it. Zabuza-man frowned an eyebrow before my uncovered face and closed eye, obviously noticing the rarity of the event. And then he shrugged it and took it in stride, reminding me once again why I liked the guy.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" I asked.

"Beer?" He said as an answer from behind the fridge door.

I refused and he settled kitchen side, leaving me to climb on the counter's stools. He drank before rolling the bottle between his hands. There was no stoned flower clock here, no drawings on the fridge - but photographies, lists and chipped magnets.

"There were attacks against us," he began without warning. "Four for now, beginning two days ago. Attacks targeting houses and families of four actives agents, different teams. No one was hurt - Sandaime draw the conclusion it was warnings from Otsuka. Ibiki thinks the mole or moles working with Otsuka are on it."

I nodded - it explained the HQ's atmosphere, Sensei's tired voice, the grim-faced teams. I mentally added Ibiki was probably right - no-one outside the HQ knew where lived who; even the cops don't have access to those informations. But those informations might have and had certainly been taken when our entire network had been hacked, what, two, three months ago? So then, it was Otsuka. But that meant various underground moves had gone under our radar. Or that I hadn't been, and wasn't, up to date... Zabuza continued, unaware of the storm raging under my skull.

"You're officially in charge of Itachi."

"He agreed to get in?"

"He didn't really had a choice - there seems to be seriously weird stuff going on at the Uchiha's, for what little he said, and didn't said, to Reno."

The silence follwing this wasn't usual for him. I might have been seriously off my game, but he couldn't hide the fact he was hiding something from me - or many things.

"Does that mean I'm back into active service?"

He stared hard at me from over his bottle, before going back to his bag. The file he extracted from it and put before me landed with a 'vlouf' of too many papers, a photograph sliding out and catching my eye. Zabuza had turned his back on me, too busy to switch the gas on under the waiting diner.

"Everything's in there, don't ask me more."

I had barely heard him, too busy staring at the guy with dyed white hair who was staring back at me from a piece of paper. I was sure I had seen him before, but where?

_"I've got a picture we're all in"... Iruka, Kotetsu and Itachi in it, even if the latter seemed nicer and younger here, with a large smile on his face... There was a guy with hair that fell in front of one of his eyes, another with a bandanna tied around his head and circles under his eyes, and the last one had quite long white hair, obviously dyed..."And here, i-it's Mizuki."_

Mizuki. This guy was one of Iruka's friends - he had talked about him only once. I frowned and opened the file. Haku passed by at some time, kissed Zabuza, said have a good evening and left. I'm not sure I answered his goodbye. I read all the file - rather, the files - in one breath, until Zabu-man replaced it with a full plate.

Everything was in this - from my orders to Sensei's various leads, a copy of the letter send to the school to explain my 'indefinite absence due to health reasons', a full report and chronology of Uchiha Jr I was thinking that Reno had done... but the one thing that made me stop and stare was the file on Iruka. And it wasn't just two pieces of paper slapped together, there was virtually everything short of his body here : the i.d. of every single person he had meet, his schools, his genealogy, the names and positions of his uncles in the European Organisation, a map of every place he had ever been to, the nins assigned to his watch, the pictures of the guys we had noticed were circling 'round him - _and those guys were eating in Otsuka's palm -_ the pictures, i.ds, birth, marriage and death certificates of his parents... the article which was relating the "tragic car accident where Margaret Johnson-Umino, 29, and her husband, 30, were killed ... well known in the discrit to have brought to life with her brothers and husband the now well-known pub... leave behind them a little boy..." My stomach did a somersault at the sight of the bad picture illustrating the article. I had trouble believing anyone had got out of the crash alive - that he had survived it, and with only one visible scar...

There was a copy of a police report, articles and mug-shots clipped together after that. The mug-shots were Mizuki's. There was a copy of a medical report too - murder attempt by stabbing... and I stopped dead when the points made 'bip bip' between them.

_They hate me because I send someone to jail...He tried to kill me._

The last page was the notice of one Tôji Mizuki on legal technicality - dated from yesterday.

It's at this moment Zabuza swapped file for plate. I barely had the time to spot the scribbling left with Sensei's handwriting on this last page - _confirmed link between this guy and a minor gang now under Otsuka's orders._

OoOoOoOoO

I didn't polish off the plate, despite the fact it was delicious, that I only had a vague reminder in the depths of my stomach of the cereals of this morning, and that Zabuza was staring at me and the plate a bit too insistently - I suspected Tsunade's influence, if not direct orders. Direct orders and his own protective streak was it.

I wanted to see Iruka. I missed him. There, I said it. I missed him. I missed him even more than when I had been stuck in the Infirmary - because I knew that even if I wanted to see him, him didn't want to see me. It was what I had feared the most, him rejecting me because of what I was doing, because of what I was.

I insisted on sleeping on their battered but comfy couch - 'cause it was more than certain I wouldn't sleep. Zabuza 'accepted' by giving me extra blankets and a set of spare clothes. There's little need of mentioning that it was clothes of him and that I was swimming in them. Literally.

I should have been shocked, angry, something, anything really, but I should have been reacting in some way. That, that was my brain and reason talking. But no, there was nothing; just a kind of bone-deep weariness, of tiredness, a wall all around me - it felt as if the hollow and terribly heavy shell just ready to shatter was back. Empty.

I pulled the too long pant back up with a hand, staring blankly by the window, lost in the plays of lights coming up from the street bellow, the brief flashes of rare traffic, the dark windows on the other side, the invisible sky. I distractedly noted the stuff piling up on the windowsill, depressed plants and stacks of second-hand books, knick-knacks and duster-catchers, polaroids on a string, worn-out couch hidden between pillows and thrift-store blankets, photographs again. The street's light was dirty orange.

The other hand was holding the file I just just finished memorizing down to the last word - the orders were clear on this. Memorize and then make it disappear. I put it down in the sink, reached a hand toward the matchbox, then felt my reserves, and incinerated it with a brief flash of white chakra - the control I put into this made me show my teeth, because this gesture could not me called a grin nor a smile.

A brief light of traffic from three stories below reflected off the old Konoha insignia in the shadows, from the arm of the couch where I had took it out of my bag and left it, my charging phone next to it.

I missed him. I missed him oh so much.

OoOoOoO end twenty-seventh part OoOoOoO


	28. Chapter 28

**A shinobi is a high school student like another - 28**

_First, forgive the lateness of this chapter, chapter that was already done and written a while ago, but didn't 'fit', and I lost interest in canon Naruto. Then school began again, I got attacked by CLAMP and rabid CLAMP bunnies (see homepage) and generally got busy with RL. However, none of this means I forgot this story. I fully intend to really finish it, and this is some part of the first steps. This is a filler chapter - action and revelations are coming. Fast. Hold on._

OoOoOoOoOoO

The streets seemed more dirty than usual, the snow melted and frozen again into mud in the gutters. The buildings were grey and heavy under the sky whitening with the sun rising somewhere, hurting the eyes. I left a crunching print on a sidewalk edge. The city needed another snowfall - many more were to come, as mid-January was barely past. Winter loved to stay here until May. Maybe the quality of the air was to its liking. I coughed the toxic fumes that the hurried morning traffic breathed out and kept walking, my street four blocs away, Haku and Zabuza's long left behind me.

I -well, the part of me who wasn't making plans and calculations to obey the orders I had been given- was wondering how long a person could take to get out of shock -it was rather obvious I was still head-first in it, still functioning by force of training, but I just couldn't care. Not caring couldn't be very healthy, could it? No, probably no... I caught myself expecting the pain, just a far-away ache now, present at every step. Not healthy,no.

I stepped into the fridge I inhabited before I realized it. I had to pull myself back together, to take back the control of my thoughts, of my mind, of everything - I couldn't afford to break now. The first step of this process was doing what I was supposed to do, to follow the orders I had been given. Good things that, following my orders. The part of me that wasn't thinking about orders got itself unceremoniously gagged and thrown into a corner of my mind.

I let my bag drop down in the main room, didn't bother with the light. The traps and chakra-thingies -for lack of a better term- surrounding the house hadn't been disturbed. No one had came. It didn't mean that I couldn't be the target of the next warning attack. It didn't mean I could stop being on guard in my own house.

I would need the uniform I kept here, and the weapons too, because going back to the HQ was discouraged for now -discouraged in the 'keep low and stay in the sleeve, ace' sense. I kept myself focused on what I had to do, because I could not afford to forget anything, to underestimate any piece of information I could have. I had to focus because there was no doubt lives depended and would depend on what was going to happen, and on my decisions...

... because it was easier, so much more easier than to think about something else, and to make my thoughts go round and round to find a solution that didn't exist... I took a deep breath, my hands on my face, my back against the door. Three days worth of stubble itched my palms.

Okay. All right. I could do it. Step one: bathroom. Step two... I'd worry about it when I'd get to it.

OoOoOoOoOo

Slipping into the old Uchiha compound where the actuals ones were currently living had been a bit more complicated than I had expected. The security had been tightened to the same level as in the Government main buildings, security agents and camera every two steps, movement detectors and dogs -and this was only what I could saw from the roofs. All of this had seemed... inappropriate to the place. Seeing bonzes strolling on the cleared rock steps in the immaculate gardens, multicolored kimonos draped on the balustrades, high ranking dignitaries conversing before delicates _shogi _and men wearing katana would have been more normal. I had felt my lips thin without emotion beneath the mask. At least was I in the original spirit of the compound.

I had quickly spotted the others nins affected here -they had let me pass with a brief nod. I had circled the low buildings flattened by the diffused light, looking for Itachi without being noticed by the normal security.

Reno had started when I had straightened next to him. Itachi had been on the other side of the one room building - said building was a little off the side of the main buildings, an ancient dojo maybe, too large to have been reserved only to the tea ceremony. I had already mapped the place when I stepped inside. Another thinning of lips, hidden from view. The building would do, for lack of HQ and training rooms.

"Hound," had saluted Carrot Top. He had seemed vaguely nervous under his studied slouch. Maybe it had been the fault of the _tanto _saying hi above my shoulder, and of my voluntarily off-key corporal language.

"Hound," had saluted Itachi from the other side, his eyes guarded -but black.

I had nodded in return, hadn't asked him to call me _sensei_ -and had started without useless wastes of time.

It had seemed obvious at the time that training Itachi would take months -even years, until body and mind become one, move together as one, until he found his limits, until chakra flooded his body as naturally as blood in his veins, until all of this reunited allowed him to use the Sharingan fully and consciously. He had the basics of hand-to-hand -and, when opening my eye, bases of chakra stock more important that I would have expected, but not enough yet to pass directly to ninjutsu. Theory would have to suffice for now

His eyes had flashed red -and my eye had throbbed in return. I had tuned out the pounding in my temples. Theory briefly tested; I would have to talk to him about this later, when he'd have more control.

There was not much more to add to what happened this first day, nothing had seemed to touch me -even the bang-your-head-against-a-wall headache triggered by the Sharingans had seemed to happen on an horizon event around an hollow shell. I was almost annoyed to have found the right explication right away; I wouldn't have the excuse of research to get bury under archives and stop thinking.

I hadn't crossed the city to my fridge once night had fallen, leaving Konoha silent. I had switched to the second part of my mission.

I had narrowly missed losing my balance several times while chakra-jumping from rooftop to rooftops above deserted streets. Roofs were still pristine white, untouched -the streets below only seemed darker and dirtier under the orange glow of the public light in comparison. I took great care to scramble my imprints, in order for them to be mistaken for cat paw-prints. I didn't think that anyone would really believe an human had walked here, but I had no idea if the alternate acces ways like roofs were under suspicion of surveillance or not. Better not to take any chance.

I had grabbed a drainpipe and had swinged in the shadows above an alley more quickly than an human eye could track movement, and had stopped there. The window I was facing was just far away enough that I could see the people inside. People, plural. And a well known-profile... it was Emily next to him, and I was too far-away to be able to read on their lips, when they weren't sitting on the bed, their backs to the window.

The team discreetly keeping an eye around and on the 'Ocean's shore' had let me go back with no more problems then when I had came.

In this manner, the first day passed.

OoOoOoOoO

The second day passed. The sky was still as white. Iruka still wasn't alone. In a way, it was reassuring me. In another, some part of me wanted to talk to him. And this part could only conceive this conversation if alones. I was still too far away to read on their lips when they weren't back to the window. Numb inside.

The third day passed. Itachi learnt things, and remembered them, almost too quickly -as if he had already underwent training. He could already control his Sharingan perfectly during short period of time. The end of the sham with 'Hound' was a question of time. The war raging openly in the city due to the underground operations of the gangs moving against each others was also a mere question of time -the last news heard by Reno weren't reassuring. I lost my balance while going back to the house, and barely avoided a ten meters fall. Iruka still wasn't alone.

The fourth day passed. Iruka wasn't in his studio, but in his uncle and aunt's apartment. Emily had closed her curtains when he had walked in her room. The team at the 'Ocean's shore' was a two-man team this day, and Kodia was here. He confirmed that Iruka hadn't moved from there of the whole day, and that no-one had heard of Tôji Mizuki since he had walked out -no-one had seen him around Iruka's either. And also that the rare encounters during this last three days between our forces and Otsuka's had intensified to the point we had asked the regular police to sit out of most calls, and to rather send the special intervention squads, even for 'mere' bar brawls.

The fifth day passed. The sky had turned to grey-ash. I had spent three hours sitting hidden on Iruka's windowsill. He hadn't moved from his cousin's room since they had came back from school. Haku forced me to eat and sleep at their place when I had stopped for news and had almost spat my lungs out. Terry had been killed during the day.

The sixth day passed, under the falling snow. Itachi had already mastered the most basics jutsu -with the Sharingan's help, all right, but too fast, too well. Reno had a bruise on his face, and didn't stay inside with us during the 'lesson'. I waited for Iruka sitting against the wall near the backdoor, my uniform in the bag, my phone and a message no-one was answering to in hand. I walked back to the house among the shadows.

The seventh day -I wish I could have said it passed in an artistic grey haze like the others.

OoOoOoOoO

I spectacularly slided down as I was taking like the other days a different way to go to the old Uchiha compound, sliding from shadow to shadow. I realized I was flat on my back and my breath taken somewhere away, the sky turned back to an even white -- _and the sky-y... is_ _a hazy shade of winter...-- _up there in between the high buildings above my head. I didn't even react -just shifted my mask a bit to the side to breathe more easily.

I scared myself at this moment.

My 'professional' conscience kicked my ass and insulted me for having, even involuntarily, neglected myself. Involuntarily? Who the hell was I kidding? I was using the Sharingan everyday, for period of times longer that the inherent will to survive every human had -and so inherent in me too, despite whatever reservations you could have on this- was happy with, I was still not back to top shape as throat and lungs were violently protesting, and it was clear I wasn't about to go back to it soon seeing as I was keeping on exhausting myself and bypassing meals.

The sky, white up there in between the buildings, didn't do anything. It was about time I got my head outta my ass. Change of program.

My head was maybe not out enough yet, but it was enough for the cocked up idea of the century to fall on me -the 'work or fail' kinda plan, no in between. I didn't even dare hope it would work all the way, since I was asking for something of an end-of-week-miracle magnitude -and everyone knows how this ends. The only thing to do was rush in.

I had taught what I could of the theory to Itachi. It was time we passed on what was happening in the real world, the very one where theory was no more that a nice memory next to real instinct and training. It was time I faced reality too. It was time I stopped to hide behind Hound's mask. It was time I did what I had been asked to.

I took the time to send a new text message to Iruka -message that probably no-one would answer to, like yesterday, and the day before, and the day before...- then took care to fold back the uniform in my bag, and to shrug on the set of clothes I had kept since yesterday, the one I had waited for Iruka in. Hat screwed in place, I set off again -but quietly on foot, like any other person.

OoOoOoOoO end part 28 OoOoOoOoO

_chap' 29 already in the works - will be accomoded to RL needs, but I say 'Before Christmas'_


End file.
